By Abdul-Jalil Mustafa.
Amman, 11 July:
Jordanian security men were Wednesday evening searching for a number of Libyan police trainees after a day of . . .[restrict]riots and arson at the premises of the Public Security Directorate, according a statement by the PSD Media Centre.
The rioters, whose number is not known, were protesting at delays in the return home two days after completing a three-month police training course.
”A group of Libyans, who have ended their police training requirements and were readying themselves to leave for home, have conducted acts of rioting and set afire the building housing the Police Sports Union to protest the delay of their travel home that was scheduled for today,” the PSD Media Centre said.
”When security men, who were present at the site, tried to stop them, they set one of the hangers afire,” it added.
The PSD Media Centre said that the Jordanian security men ”managed to bring a group of the rioters under control, while some of them fled outside the building and they were being chased to arrest them”.
One of the Jordanian policemen was wounded and was being hospitalised, the statement said.
The PSD Media centre pointed out that an agreement was reached with the Libyan side to arrange flights to enable the 1,900 Libyans who ended their police training in Jordan on Monday to leave Jordan in three stages.
”But the failure of the Libyan airliners to arrive at the set dates have caused delay in their departure as scheduled,” it added.
The 1,900 Libyans, mostly former revolutionaries, arrived in Jordan in April as the first batch of about 10,000 cadres whom the Jordanian authorities pledged to train on miscellaneous police activist in accordance with an agreement signed in October between the two governments.
At least 11 Libyan trainees were deported by the Jordanian authorities recently after a probe proved their involvement in a quarrel at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre (JIPTC) early in July. [/restrict]
