By Abdul-Jalil Mustafa.
Amman, 26 April:
The first batch of Libyan policemen started training in Jordan on Wednesday. The training of 10,000 Libyan . . .[restrict]ex-revolutionaries who have now joined either the police was agreed between Jordan and Libya in January.
“Jordan always pursued a policy of security openness that prompted it to extend assistance to the Arab brethren and shift expertise to them in all security and police spheres,” Rakkad said during a ceremony held to welcome the Libyan personnel.
The agreement between the Jordanian Public Security Directorate and the Libyan Interior Ministry for training 10,000 Libyan policemen over a time span of two years “came as a translation of this policy”, he added.
He pointed out that the training programme would involve various police aspects and investigative field activity so that the Libyans would go home “equipped with the necessary know-how for maintaining security in their country and carrying out their duties in a professional manner”.
Also speaking at the ceremony was the Libyan liaison officer for the training courses. Colonel Mohammad Abu Mudais, who thanked Jordan for putting its facilities at the expense of the new Libyan regime with a view to qualifying the personnel of the Libyan national police force to enable them perform their duties at home in a sophisticated manner.
“We have chosen Jordan for this task in view of its good reputation in the police training sphere,” he added.
Prior to their arrival in Jordan, Ibrahim Shakaseya, from Libya’s Supreme Security Committee, said that the group were being sent to Jordan for training on homeland security and that, altogether, 2,200 personnel from all over Libya would be trained under this particular programme.
He added that others would be sent for training to Britain, Turkey, Qatar and the UAE.
Since 2003, Jordan has trained about 53,000 Iraqi policemen, 8,000 members of the Palestinian national security force and undisclosed numbers of policemen from other Arab countries.
The training of this large number of Libyan policemen is part of the special ties that Jordan came to forge with the post-Qaddafi Libyan regime on the backdrop of Amman’s early recognition of the Libyan Transitional Council as representative of the Libyan people.
On Tuesday, the deputy interior minister, Omar Khadrawi, said that 70,000 former revolutionaries had now joined the ministry’s forces. This was way beyond expectation. The anticipated figure was 25,000, he said. [/restrict]
