22 April 2013 - The UN Integrated Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau, UNIOGBIS, on Saturday donated uniforms to police officers at the Model Police Station in the Bairro Militar, one of the most populous neighbourhoods in Bissau, as part of its efforts to support the gradual application of national policies on the uniformising of public security and law-enforcement. The handover ceremony was presided over by the head of the Public Order Police, Commissioner Armando Nhaga, and witnessed by members of UNIOGBIS sections that support the modernization of the security, justice and defence sectors.

Speaking on behalf of the Interior Minister, Nhaga praised the excellent cooperation that exists between UNIOGBIS and the Interior Ministry, including the police. Recalling the many forms of support the mission has been providing at various levels, he called for the partnership with UNIOGBIS to be continued. "On behalf of the Ministry of the Interior, the Minister and the Office of the National Commissioner of Police, I would like to convey our appreciation for the way in which UNIOGBIS has been collaborating with the Public Order Police, in particular, and the Ministry of the Interior, within the framework of training the police force, and especially, equipping it," he said.
"This is a very important action since the first step was made in 2010 towards the construction of this Model Police Station in Bairro Militar and not only here, because there is a plan to build various other stations both in Bissau and in the hinterland," Nhaga added, expressing the hope that the project, which also covers equipping the stations with computers and related equipment, uniforms and vehicles, would be duly implemented.
Speaking on behalf of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Guinea-Bissau, the head of UNIOGBIS' Security, Justice and Defence Department, Antero Lopes, recalled that the UN helps host countries to implement plans of this nature. "The United Nations has helped governments of countries where it maintains peace missions and their respective institutions to draw up and implement these types of plans in which the police are more humanized, in which the police work with, for and through the population," he said.
"Before the United Nations came here to help the Public Order Police and other police forces, this relationship with the community already existed at the personal level because of the very nature of the Guinean people, a people who are generally very distinct with regard to human values and who have already proved this", Lopes stressed.
"Therefore, the natural conditions exist, here in Guinea-Bissau, for this model of community policing and internal security to be gradually implanted throughout the country," he added. "What is needed is for Guinean professionals to make good use of the support received and continue to be supported with training, including manuals, new methodologies, within structures that are understood by the population as providing a service on behalf of human rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens, and not a repressive force".
The interim adviser for police matters, Bashale Gaston, explained that the model police station was a new concept of policing with the community.
"The model police station is more than an infrastructure; it is a new way for the police to work with the community that it is serving," he said. "Therefore, the idea is that the police look after the society and the society trusts and helps the police to work for the safety of all. That collaboration is very important and that is the model police station concept."