For two years, joint teams comprising staff from the Secretary of State for Security, UNMIT, PNTL and UNPOL assessed all PNTL District Commands, Units and Services and drafted consensual recommendations. Their reports show the current status of PNTL and identify the areas that need improvement. This joint effort should be publicly praised.
I also wish to acknowledge the efforts made by the PNTL Command to ensure the compliance with the criteria defined for responsibility handover from UNPOL to PNTL, especially in those Units that were further away from the objectives on their first assessment.
This effort was met by UNPOL’s commitment to assist PNTL in assuming command. I therefore want to thank UNPOL, who has been with us in this arduous task of establishing a police for the citizens, making a decisive contribution to the maintenance of law and order.
Commissioner Luís Carrilho contributed, together with the Commander-General of PNTL, to the atmosphere of friendship and trust that allowed to unite PNTL and UNPOL in their dedication to Timor-Leste. His endless commitment towards PNTL and the Timorese authorities is commendable.
This is why we must take the continued presence of UNPOL over the next two years to develop PNTL, so that it becomes and remains able to better accomplish its objectives, favoring preventive action, in a network of community policing, using minimum force when necessary and always in the respect of, and to enforce, law and order.
Today we reach the end of the Consolidation Phase to enter the Full Reconstitution Phase, during which PNTL and UNPOL should together ensure that the criteria agreed upon during the Consolidation Phase are met continuously. Only that can ensure PNTL its institutional stability.
Command handover to PNTL must be accompanied by the continuing effort to transfer skills and capacity, for technical and organizational improvements aiming at achieving an internal security platform capable of facing any challenge.
PNTL Command has faced major challenges that demanded great leadership capabilities and a sense of public service. The new command brought PNTL a new dynamics and reinstated confidence, which are of the utmost importance to achieving its goals.
I congratulate the PNTL Commander-General, Commissioner Longuinhos Monteiro, for his remarkable sense of duty, dedication, full availability and highest quality of professional performance, demonstrated in the past two years, in reconstructing and developing our Security Force.
A word of appreciation is due also to Commissioner Afonso de Jesus who successfully directed PNTL in the most difficult time of its recent history.
I am happy to say that the conditions have been created for us to believe in the good omen of the final phase of cooperation between PNTL and UNPOL.
The areas of training, resource management and most of all development of operational capacity and disciplinary responsibility remain before us, as constant challenges.
The discipline issue persists, and needs to be addressed definitely, with impartial judgment and the assurance of the defendant´s right to be heard. There are still pending cases that should be solved quickly. This is an area where UNPOL assistance will prove most beneficial to improve the capacity of the members of the Department of Justice.
I would like to end with a note on the Recruitment Process for the PNTL Agents Training Course: there have been 9338 applications from all 13 Districts, that might reveal pride or wish of serving a noble institution that assures the maintenance of Law and Order, but it also certainly reveals something more worrying about our youth’s level of unemployment. State policies that include a comprehensive concept of security, namely human security, cannot ignore this data.
Last I would like to thank all bilateral partners who have made devoted contributions to the development of our police, particularly Australia with the Timor-Leste Police Development Programme (TLPDP), Indonesia on training, Malaysia on Training of Inspectors, New Zealand on Community Policing, Portugal on Recruitment Process and PNTL Agents Training Course, and the United States on Criminal Investigation.
Before ending I wish to express our gratitude to UNMIT, through the Special Representative of the Secretary General, my dear friend Ameerah Haq. Her commitment in working together with the Timorese authorities has been crucial in this phase of our State-building.
Today is a remarkable day, a day filled with pride about our achievements and with optimism and confidence for the tasks that lie before us. I congratulate everyone for a job well done!
PARABENS BA PNTL NO’O SUSESU NAFATIN BA IMI NIA KNA’AR
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