Wikileaks - CMXLIX
140617 2/8/2008 16:00 08ROME178 Embassy Rome UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY VZCZCXRO3401 PP RUEHFL RUEHNP DE RUEHRO #0178/01 0391600 ZNR UUUUU ZZH P 081600Z FEB 08 FM AMEMBASSY ROME TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9819 INFO RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA PRIORITY 0172 RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 0575 RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 0875 RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0804 RUEHYD/AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PRIORITY 0026 RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR PRIORITY 0552 RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA PRIORITY 0299 RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 1556 RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PRIORITY 0341 RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KIEV PRIORITY RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST PRIORITY 0606 RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0404 RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO PRIORITY 0058 RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3266 RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 0492 RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA PRIORITY 0448 RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 0527 RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0392 RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA PRIORITY 0528 RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 0278 RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 1824 RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1459 RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 2383 RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 4411 RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 1927 RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 1787 RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN PRIORITY 9242 RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE PRIORITY 2903 RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES PRIORITY 3053 RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0852 RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY RHMFIUU/CDRUSASETAF VICENZA IT PRIORITY 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
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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
