Representatives of the Center for Security Studies (CSS) talked with Vildana Sedo, Investigator at the Department of Criminal Police of Stari Grad, the First Police Administration of MIA CS, within the project “Strengthening of Institutional Capacities through Sharing of Experience of Participants in Peacekeeping Missions”, which is financially supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives.
Sedo has been wearing her police uniform for 20 years and she participated in three peacekeeping missions during that time. She shared her experiences with the future participants as an instructor at the course in the Peace Support Operations Training Center in Butmir (PSOTC).
In the period from 2009 to 2016, she participated in three peacekeeping missions of the United Nations (UN). Her first mission was in Liberia (West Africa) from December 2009 to January 2012. That was a mission of peacekeeping and strengthening the capacity of local police in providing police service to citizens, and especially to vulnerable categories.
In the period from December 2014 to March 2016, she worked on the UN Mission in Afghanistan as the Police Adviser for strategy development in the MIA of Afghanistan, on the work of the police in the community and investigation of crimes against women and children, as well as on the development of procedures for the protection of female employees in their ministry. The UN missions in Libya and Afghanistan had more political character than peace-keeping missions, and therefore, her tasks referred to work on developing strategies, procedures and ordinances from certain fields, while in Liberia she worked on direct consultation of local police and strengthening of their operational capacities.
When it comes to benefits and difficulties of participating in the peacekeeping mission, she noted that the participation in peacekeeping missions had a very positive effect on her.
“The benefits of engagement in UN missions are truly reflected in the expansion of personal and professional perspectives, perfecting and motivation for building professional career. I am practically trained for performing operational police tasks by participating in peacekeeping missions, but also for other types of work in the MIA,” stated Sedo.
According to Vildana, a woman who decides to go to the peacekeeping mission, must believe in herself and her abilities, because it will be expected from her to always be on the top of her job.
When it comes to difficulties, she noted that it takes a lot of effort to preserve emotional relations and closeness with the family and other people during the mission.
(Source: klix.ba)
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