The National Police College (NPC) conducted its third symposium on peace, security and justice, yesterday, as top government officials and experts were joined by researchers and scholars to deliberate on how best to confront emerging security challenges.

The symposium held at the Rwanda National Police headquarters in Kacyiru was part of the Police Senior Command and Staff Course programme organised ahead of the graduation of the fourth intake of 31 Police students from 10 African countries.

The countries are Ethiopia, The Gambia, Kenya, Namibia, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda, the host.

The symposium is organised to enrich the understanding of Police senior command students on issues around peace, security and justice by sharing experience with scholars, policy makers and other eminent officials whose work greatly influence the shaping of norms in the three areas.

It was held under the theme "Confronting the Emerging Security Challenges: Rethinking Strategy."

Opening the symposium, the Minister for Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana, said it contributes to the fight against dynamic security threats in the region such as terrorism and other transnational crimes affecting the security of individual countries.

"It is evident that addressing challenges associated with the changing nature of security environment requires police officers to be equipped with necessary analytical tools and deep understanding of national, regional as well as global security landscape,” Minister Harerimana said.

Panelist included ministers; James Kabarebe of Defence, Johnston Busingye of Justice and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Emmanuel K. Gasana.

Others were Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board, who deliberated on good governance as a pillar of sustainable security; Dr. Ochieng Kamudhayi of the Institute of Diplomacy and international relations studies of the University of Nairobi, who talked about Africa's peace and conflicts, Stephen Anthony Rodriques, the country director of UNDP (UN in post conflict peace building-challenges and opportunities), the special representative of Interpol to the African Union, Francis Rwego, who discussed about ‘crime in a globalised and interconnected world: evolvement and future trends, and Col Francis Mutiganda, discussed emerging security threats: case of terrorism.

On foreign interference versus African sovereignty, Minister Kabarebe, noted that it has changed according to globalisation which is getting more sophisticated compared to colonialism.

"Foreign interference in Africa is much easier than before simply because Africans handed themselves in for exploitation; foreign accusations against Rwanda are there to advance the interests of the West,” Kabarebe said.

On the legal and policy response to the changing nature of crime, Minister Busingye noted that "If we continue being too traditional on professional secrecy, we are giving a loop hole to crimes which go through space due to globalisation."

On challenges and prospects in policing a rapidly evolving crime environment, IGP Gasana, underscored that Africans must have the culture of addressing their security problems through cooperation and sharing information on threats.

"Today crimes are more sophisticated. Emerging crimes affect security, developments and economies...we should consider regional resourcing to confront these modern crimes," IGP Gasana said.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Louis Mushikiwabo, in keynote closing remarks, said peace and security dynamics of the 21st century are becoming very complex and unpredictable.

"What that means is that we all have to be prepared for unpredictability to confront challenges we hadn't anticipated and haven't been thinking about," Mushikiwabo said.

"I am very glad that you discussed governance in matters of security... It is imperative. Deterrence is one of the important steps to lasting security. It is about working on the hands and minds of people...it's the biggest investment in security; it is to deter to keep human being from committing crimes and from connecting across nations," she added.

"We have a compelling need to be aware of the trends and the impact in order to be able to reshape policy, create the right legal and operational frameworks both at national, sub-regional, regional and global levels.”

Commissioner of Police (CP) Felix Namuhoranye, the commandant of NPC, said different lectures were covered during the one year course, and advanced learning activities such as internal and external study tours as well as symposium on relevant themes are organized to enhance students’ understanding and expand their analytical capacity.

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