Liberia is a country currently in a great struggle of trying to recover after a 14 year civil war. In response, the UN sent the first all-female unit to Monrovia, Liberia to help. There are almost 100 women, all from India, that will help to train the local police in a 6 month period. In the upcoming local elections, these women will be the security. In total there are currently 15000 peacekeepers in Liberia to help with this cause. These women come from Kashmir and North-Eastern India and are fully experienced in handling insurgencies such as this one. Mark Kroeker, a UN police advisor in Los Angeles, says allowing the involvement of women allows more change in more vulnerable places. He also believes that this proves that women can be a strong part in a police force.
It is always amazing to be able to distinguish certain groups of people for their achievement and to take away any generalizations about them. Similarly women have once again proved to be a strong force in helping, which may prove to be a lesson for some countries where women do not yet have all their rights. It is also nice to see that the UN is trying to help in some way before it gets too late. For example in the Rwandan genocide, despite the fact that they arrived late already, they had a restraining order to not shoot which made the situation helpless. It destroyed the point of them ever going there. However this news leaves me one very broad question still. Why are women and men being trained in fighting and new arms being built when the hope is to avoid war and not engage in it?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6314263.stm
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