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Zaire Development of a National Police Force
The development of police forces in Zaire has been
anything but
a steady, continuous process. Those elements that perform
the
police function in contemporary Zaire descend from a
variety of
colonial and postcolonial structures that have been
reorganized,
renamed, absorbed by other services, or disbanded
altogether.
Police duties are assigned to both military and civilian
security
organizations, often simultaneously, and have undergone
alternating
periods of centralization, decentralization, and transfer
of
authority. In all cases, however, the performance of the
police has
been mediocre at best and, at worst, completely
dysfunctional and
occasionally criminal.
From its founding in 1888, the Force Publique fulfilled
the
basic functions of both a police force and an army. This
dual role
caused tension within the organization and was a major
factor in
its poor discipline and lack of effectiveness. Because of
the
requirement to act as a police force, members of the
colonial army
were dispersed throughout the country, where they normally
came
under the control of local civilian administrators.
This dual role continued virtually unchanged until
shortly
after World War I when the Belgian administration
reorganized the
force into two organizations: Garrison Troops and
Territorial
Service Troops. The Garrison Troops were intended to serve
as a
military force oriented against an external threat, while
the
Territorial Service Troops assumed the role of a
gendarmerie or
police force. Although the Territorial Service Troops
remained an
integral part of the Force Publique and could revert to
the control
of the commander, elements were deployed throughout the
country
under the operational control of the territorial
administrators.
Although this change theoretically created two distinct
organizations, the separation of powers was not routinely
applied.
Garrison Troops gradually came under the control of the
civilian
administration and acted like a police force. In 1959 the
Territorial Service Troops were redesignated as gendarmes,
although
their duties and responsibilities remained essentially
unchanged.
A year later, most of the gendarmes were incorporated into
the ANC,
totaling 6,000, out of a 25,000-member force. The
remaining
gendarmerie was a small, mostly rural police force.
In addition to the Territorial Service Troops, two
other police
forces existed during the colonial period. The Chief's
Police, a
rural force based in the local territories, maintained
order and
also functioned as messengers, jailers, and court
attendants. This
force served under the local chiefs and had no regional or
national
command structure. Although its members wore uniforms and
maintained internal order, they did not carry weapons and
received
little training. At independence, this force totaled
approximately
10,000 personnel.
The Territorial Police was a more structured
organization,
numbering between 6,000 and 9,000 personnel at
independence.
Created in 1926 and placed under Belgian administrators,
this force
performed numerous functions including maintaining order,
running
prisons, and guarding public buildings, as well as
reinforcing the
Chief's Police. After independence, each province
maintained its
own force, which was officered by former Belgian
policemen. In some
cases, during the immediate postindependence period, these
forces
became, in effect, private armies.
The chaos of the immediate postindependence period,
along with
the departure of the experienced officer corps,
precipitated the
disintegration of the constabulary forces. The UN restored
a
semblance of order, but the central government faced a
long and
tedious task of rebuilding its security forces. During the
next
four years, UN personnel and other foreign advisers
instituted
training programs in an effort to rehabilitate the police.
Nigerian
detachments established on-the-job training programs, and
a limited
number of Belgian police returned as advisers. The United
States
also initiated a broad assistance program to provide
specialized
training, arms, and equipment.
Rebellions continuing into the mid-1960s complicated
the task
of restoring coherence to police organizations. The
increase in the
number of provinces from six to twenty-one also
exacerbated this
process. As each new provincette achieved control
of its
provincial police force, it inflated its size, and these
organizations began to resemble provincial armies.
Mobutu's
assumption of power in 1965 ended this trend, however. In
December
1966, Mobutu removed the police from provincial control,
standardized police organization and equipment, and
centralized
control under the Ministry of Interior (Ministry of
Interior and
Security in 1993). The 1966 law establishing the National
Police
gave it responsibility for regular police functions in
both urban
and rural areas. This new force, with an authorized
strength of
25,000, absorbed many personnel from the overgrown
provincial
forces, while politically unreliable or undesirable
elements were
largely culled.
The reorganization was effective in reducing local
paramilitary
threats to the regime's authority, but it did not
significantly
improve the performance of basic police functions.
Furthermore, the
deployment of the National Police was limited, for the
most part,
to urban centers, with the responsibility for internal
security and
public order in the rural areas resting chiefly with the
still
extant gendarmes of the ANC.
Data as of December 1993
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