MACEDONIA: POLICE ACADEMY DIRECTOR RESIGNS -

C O N F I D E N T I A L SKOPJE 000899 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, DS/T/ATA, INL/C/CJ E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC MK SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: POLICE ACADEMY DIRECTOR RESIGNS - POLICE TRAINING CAN FINALLY BEGIN Classified By: Poloff Katrina Mosser for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Macedonian Police Academy Director Slagana Taseva resigned from her position on November 2, citing a disagreement with the government over its recent move to bring the academy under the oversight of the Ministry of Interior (a government move the international community unanimously supported). In her resignation statement, Taseva claimed that over the past nine months the MOI had sought to undermine the Police Academy by establishing a separate, private police training program at a local private university. (NOTE: Taseva is a board member and the donor coordinator for the NGO Zero Corruption, the newly re-established local branch of Transparency International. END NOTE) ¶2. (SBU) Under Macedonian law, the Police Academy in fact falls under the jurisdiction of the MOI. Taseva, who ran the academy as a private fiefdom -- collecting tuition from civilian students who were promised police force jobs that never materialized -- had refused to coordinate or cooperate with the MOI for the past three years. As a result, the academy failed to provide basic or in-service training for actual police officers. That situation finally led the MOI to look for other options for professional police training, including using private institutions, while in the meantime working to place the academy under MOI control. Taseva's resignation therefore ends a long-running battle between her and the MOI, and the academy is expected to begin providing professional training for police in the near future. ¶3. (SBU) Over the past year, Emboffs and representatives from the OSCE and EU had urged MOI officials to resolve the differences between Taseva and the Ministry so that police recruits and veterans could be trained at the academy. The Police Academy facility in Skopje had received numerous equipment donations and funding from international donors, including the USG. A major concern for all donors while Taseva headed the academy was that the upgraded facility was not being used for training police, the purpose for which it originally was intended. We recently pulled DS/ATA donated equipment from the academy because of the dispute between Taseva and the MOI. Now that the dispute is resolved and the police academy can begin training police again, post will review the situation and consider returning the equipment to the academy if we determine that the equipment will be used appropriately. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: The MOI will need to search for and appoint a new director who can ensure the academy provides quality training programs for police officers. International police advisors here, including our ICITAP representative, will support the MOI's efforts to re-start police training at the academy. While Taseva was correct in stating that the MOI had begun to train police at a private institution, post does not see this as a major concern -- continuing education for police at private institutions is in line with standard international practices. Our main concern was that Taseva's refusal to cooperate with the MOI, in training police after they entered the MOI and throughout their careers, eventually would undermine the effectiveness and professionalism of the police force. With Taseva now out of the way, a significant obstacle to properly training police at the academy is gone, and we believe the result will be a stronger, better trained, and more professional police force. MILOVANOVIC