Another edition of the UN Staff Officers, UN Military Observers and UN Police Officers Courses ends at CCOPAB
VILA MILITAR, RJ - Last Friday, October 17th, the 2014 second edition of UN Staff Officers, UN MILOBs and UN Police Officers courses (EPMP, acronym in Portuguese), totaling 33 military personnel as students, came to an end.
Lasting for four weeks and offering several theoretical and, mainly, practical classes when students are trained to face potential situations to be found in the field, the course is designed to prepare military personnel to perform their roles as United Nations military observers, staff officers and police officers.
From the Federal District Criminal Police, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthiane Maria da Silva Santos, who participated in a peace mission in East Timor in 2003, says that the existence of this course is of great importance to the successful accomplishment of the mission. "When I took part of the mission in East Timor, there was not any preparation. We only knew what our colleagues who had already been deployed there would inform us. As I arrived there, I took an induction training for a week. Certainly, when the soldier is designated for a mission and takes this course, the preparation is a lot better for he or she will know the organizational structure and functioning of the UN. Besides, there is an oppotunity to have a general view of the environment to be found in the host country."
As to Major Luiz Cláudio Talavera de Azeredo, from the Brazilian Army, and also designated to be a staff officer in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) -a conflict area between Sudan and South Sudan, the course offered by CCOPAB is at a high level if compared to international courses. "I have recently taken a UN staff officers course in Colombia, managed by the Canadian Peace Operations Center. I can affirm that our course is much more complete for it is carried out with the military observers'. It provides us with a better understanding of the mission as whole."
EPMP, whose students were 19 soldiers from the Army, 4 from the Navy, 2 from the Air Force and 8 from several Brazilian States Criminal Police, was carried out from September 22nd to October 17th.
Translation: CPT ISRAEL
