COESPU AT THE TWO-YEAR MARK: 1,000 PEACEKEEPERS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ROME 000178 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR PM/PPA JENNIFER HANLEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPKO MARR MOPS PGOV PREL IT ID NI UP CM IN JO, KE, ML, RO, SG, PK, YI, MO SUBJECT: COESPU AT THE TWO-YEAR MARK: 1,000 PEACEKEEPERS TRAINED, 2,000 TO GO ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Two years after its inception, the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) in Vicenza, Italy, is well on its way to achieving its goal of training 3,000 gendarme/carabinieri-style police officers and trainers by the end of 2010. Since November 2005, Italian Carabinieri (National Paramilitary Police) at CoESPU have trained 1,102 officers from 13 countries in stability police peacekeeping techniques, and the center will soon expand participation to new countries. CoESPU is a G8 initiative but it depends for the bulk of its funding, staffing and guidance on Italy and the U.S. As such, CoESPU represents an important and highly tangible instance of U.S.-Italian cooperation. The challenges CoESPU now faces include: measuring the effectiveness of its graduates, deploying Mobile Training Teams (MTTs) to countries that have pledged police units for Darfur, streamlining its human rights vetting procedures, and developing more secure sources of funding. If approved, the Italian request for additional U.S. staffing should help the center meet some of these challenges. End Summary. Off to an excellent start... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶2. (U) CoESPU was founded in November 2005 at a Carabinieri training center in Vicenza, Italy, as a joint contribution by the U.S. and Italy to the G8 "Action Plan for Expanding Global Capability for Peace Support Operations" adopted at the Sea Island Summit in 2004. The plan was developed to address the need for increased global peacekeeping capacity, with a particular focus on Africa, and pledged to train, by 2010, 75,000 international peacekeepers, at least 7,500 of which would be gendarme/carabinieri-type police (Stability Police Units or SPUs) specializing in managing the transition from a post-crisis situation to a more stable context for reconstruction. SPUs (also called FPUs or Formed Police Units) are highly mobile autonomous units of 140 personnel each, and are an increasingly important component of UN peace operations. The UN has expanded FPU operations over the last several years to over 36 units currently deployed worldwide -- 21 of which come from CoESPU partner countries -- and has authorized up to 19 FPUs for UNAMID. ¶3. (U) CoESPU's goal is to train 3,000 stability police peacekeepers and trainers by the end of 2010. Since its founding in November 2005, Italian Carabinieri trainers at CoESPU have trained 1,102 officers from 13 countries in stability police techniques using a curriculum developed by the Carabinieri in collaboration with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). An additional 12 countries have participated in the command leadership seminars that DPKO holds at CoESPU for its stability police personnel. The ROME 00000178 002 OF 005 U.S. pays for about a third of CoESPU's annual budget through the Global Peace Operations Initiative or GPOI. Of the five staff positions envisioned for U.S. officers at CoESPU, only one (the Deputy Director position) has thus far been filled. ¶4. (U) The Carabinieri, who developed a robust Stability Police Unit model in Bosnia and Kosovo, are acknowledged by the UN and other international organizations to be leaders in the field of developing Stability Police Unit doctrine. The U.S. and Italy have also sent Mobile Assistance Teams (MATs) to almost all of the CoESPU participant countries to prepare contributing police forces for CoESPU training and to monitor the progress of past graduates. ¶5. (SBU) The officers trained at CoESPU come from a diverse group of countries that have agreed to use their graduates to train and form Stability Police Units that will deploy to peacekeeping operations under UN or