DILI, 23 june 2021 (TATOLI) – The Secretary of State for Civil Protection (SEPS) through the National Directorate for Community Conflict Prevention (DNPKK), together with PLAN International, and Timorese National Police (PNTL), today realize a one-day police conflict management training to raise police officers’ awareness on handling conflict prevention and child protection.
Fifteen police officers were nominated to attend the police conflict management training at the Interior Ministry’s hall in Dili, today.
Dili Municipal Police Commander, Superintendent Henrique da Costa said the main objective of the training was to raise the capacity of the police officers to manage their emotions when handling conflicts in the communities.
“We need such training for our police officers because they have experienced different situations in the communities due to the Covid-19 situation and the recent floods. These situations indeed affected the professionalism of the police officers in handling conflicts. Hoping, this training will help officers to improve their conflict management skills, particularly in dealing with conflicts in the communities, in the future,” said Costa.
At the same place, the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Joaquim José Gusmão dos Reis Martins said the training was a good initiative, which was important to enhancing community police service delivery.
Martins thanked Plan International, DNPKK, and PNTL for the initiative, adding good cooperation between the parties was important to ensure police quality service in dealing with conflicts in the communities.
He said police officers needed to put aside their personal emotions and focus on handling any conflicts professionally.
Martins called on the police officers to forget all of the incidents that had happened recently and take those experiences as a lesson learned to improve police professionalism, in order to regain public trust.
Plan International’s Country Director, Dillyana Ximenes appreciated and thanked DNPKK for all the work that had been made to realize the training.
She said the one-day police conflict management training was part of Plan International’s US$ 12.000 given to DNPKK, focusing on multiple components, including gender equality, child protection, conflict prevention, and so on.
She added next year Plan International would offer up to US$20.000 to DNPKK to implement the conflict prevention-related activities.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
