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Congo-Kinshasa: Mbandaka - Monuc Celebrates Congolese Policewomen
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United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Jean-Tobie Okala
Everything, or almost everything, was there: parade, roundtable and reflections on the status of the Congolese policewoman, various fun activities... MONUC Civilian Police/Equateur has celebrated woman, in its own way, in the framework of Women's Month.
From 21 to 22 March, the civilian Police of MONUC/Equateur (CivPol) organized a series of activities for Congolese policewomen. It all started at Centre Isidore Bakanja with a workshop to mull over the condition of women in the National Congolese Police (PNC). Thus, about 100 policewomen of all ranks gathered in response to the CivPol invitation in order to examine without complacency their situation within the PNC; breaking all the taboos and the law of silence, these policewomen considered their working conditions, which are both degrading and humiliating.
These policewomen, in random order, denounce: submission to hard and forced drills and labor, even when pregnant or during their periods, which leads to miscarriages and premature births; deliberate transmission of sexually transmitted infections by their superiors to whom policewomen are attaché as secretaries or hostesses, on account of "blind obedience to the chief"; all kinds of discrimination with an iron rule that limits to Captain the highest rank attainable by policewomen; some grants in the police are for men only; sexual harassment and slavery, such as by imposing obscene dances and songs during the training period...
In the training center, policewomen denounce how they are welcomed, which is not always what they had expected, because they are subjected to hazing and humiliation on a daily basis; a policewoman said "The motto in our training center taught us that we were there to be used: to be used for what? Everyone can guess the answer...," she concluded with a serious look and a shaking voice.
To sum it all up, policewomen in the Equateur province seized the opportunity in this workshop to say out loud that they experience indignation and frustrations from their male peers and superiors who use their rank and position in order to get sexual favors in exchange for minor promotions.
Hence, it is not surprising that in the Equateur province, for instance, there is no female commander of a big unit, or that there is not a single female superior officer among the 316 policewomen that are in the Provincial Police Department.
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What to do in order to restore the policewoman's dignity? Recommendations from this workshop were aplenty; it was during a colorful parade in front of the City Hall in Mbandaka that the policewomen solemnly gave their memorandum to the governor of the province. The memorandum mentions, among others, the respect of parity at the time of recruitment, of training (refresher, capacity-building...) while already serving, of the composition of commissions for rank advancement, of the installation and access to positions of authority at all levels; the need for legal Police officers to be trained about fighting and repression of sexual violence against women; the need to grant a consistent pay and social benefits for policewomen no different than for their male peers.
Policewomen also asked to take part in accelerated trainings so as to enhance their level; more importantly, they insist on putting an end to impunity in order to dissuade those who commit sexual violence. Finally, policewomen asked for medical assistance that is equal to their male peers and for the construction of separate toilets for men and women.
At the end, head of MONUC office /Equateur, Guirane Ndiaye, hailed the bravery of these policewomen and invited the provincial authorities "to take those recommendations very seriously," because the United Nations like actions more than words, he said. As to the Governor of the Province, José Makila, he asked these policewomen to "do their job without any complex" and to fully occupy their place both in the society and inside the PNC.
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| Copyright © 2008 United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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