Twenty-five military and police officers as well as civilians from four member states of the Eastern Africa Standby Force on Monday, April 17, began a training on the protection of civilians at the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) in Musanze District.

The one-week course, which will run until April 21, drew participants from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Organised in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the course will enhance the capacity of the participants in protection of civilians during peacekeeping operations, the RPA said.

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"The protection of civilians is very essential in contemporary peacekeeping missions,” said RPA’s director, Col (Rtd) Jill Rutaremara.

Though the majority of peace missions today have the mandate of protection of civilians, violence against civilians persists in countries like DR Congo, Central African Republic, Mali, South Sudan and Somalia.

To be able to respond to those situations, Rutaremara said the peacekeepers and civilian personnel need to understand what their mandates entail.

"Military, police and civilian components play a crucial role in protecting civilians. To perform their roles effectively and efficiently, however, peacekeepers must be adequately trained, equipped, resourced, committed and disciplined. They must be gender and culture sensitive.

"For the military, police and civilian capabilities to be effectively and efficiently employed, the various actors in a peace mission must understand their own capabilities and those of their counterparts,” he said.

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Rutaremara said stated that the peacekeepers must be aware of the huge expectations that the population in mission areas have and the disastrous consequences of the failure by the peacekeepers to protect those at risk.

"Rwanda offers a good example of the total failure by a UN peacekeeping mission,” he said.

The failure by the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) resulted in the killing of over one million Tutsi in a period of less than 3 months during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

"It is hard to imagine what would have happened if Rwandans had totally relied on the UN for their survival. The failure to protect life seriously undermines the credibility of UN and that of troop and police contributing countries,” Rutaremara observed.

The participants in the course on the protection of civilians are expected to be deployed to different UN peacekeeping missions.

Peacekeepers operate within the boundaries of national and international laws including those that provide special protection to vulnerable groups such as women, children and refugees.

While there are different forms of response, actions that prevent and pre-empt threats to physical violence against civilians are the most effective, Rutaremara said.

"The use of force should also be applied in a graduated manner. Appropriate use of force must be accompanied by a clear understanding of Military Rules of Engagement as well as the Detention and the Use of Force for the Police. This is a command responsibility.”