|
Zaire National Gendarmerie
In August 1972, the National Police was dissolved, and
its
functions were transferred to the National Gendarmerie
(Gendarmerie
Nationale). In addition, oversight of the police was
transferred
from the Ministry of Interior to the defense portfolio.
The 21,000-
member gendarmerie functions primarily as a police force,
but it
also has a paramilitary mission, to form the first line of
defense
against an external threat
(see Development
of a National Police Force
, this ch.). The 1972 transfer of oversight
concentrated
additional power in the hands of President Mobutu, while
weakening
the law enforcement role of municipal leaders at the local
level
who had previously exercised authority over a police
detachment but
now had to turn to local military commanders, who were
often
unresponsive, for assistance.
To accomplish its divergent missions, the gendarmerie
is
organized into two forces: a territorial force, the
Territorial
Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Territoriale--GT) and a mobile
force, the
Mobile Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Mobile--GM). The GT
functions as
the police component and the GM as a paramilitary
organization. The
gendarmerie is commanded by a chief of staff, who reports
to the
head of the FAZ and the minister of defense and veterans'
affairs.
The gendarmerie is lightly armed with individual
weapons and
machine guns and is transported in jeeps and trucks.
Although most
of this equipment is often in disrepair, gendarmerie units
in some
parts of the country are better equipped than army units,
which
often have to borrow gendarmerie equipment to train or
deploy.
Nevertheless, the gendarmerie is normally not as well
trained as
army units and even less capable.
Data as of December 1993
|
