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UN mission hails Bosnian police academies for promoting cooperation, tolerance

UN mission hails Bosnian police academies for promoting cooperation, tolerance

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) today congratulated the country’s two police academies for their work in promoting cooperation and tolerance since multi-ethnic law-enforcement training began in 1999.

“The police cadet training at both academies has been one of the most visible and successful programmes, in which we have seen young men and women from many different towns and villages, from different ethnic groups, and different family backgrounds, coming together to live and work and train together,” the Mission said in a statement released in Sarajevo.

In an update today, UNMIBH noted that there has been steady progress in minority recruitment, with more than 1,160 cadets currently in training or having completed the training at the academies. The number of cadets represented 5 per cent of the total number of all registered and authorized police in the Bosnian Federation and 8 per cent in the Republika Srpska.

The Mission also said it was particularly impressed with the numbers of young women recruited into the Bosnian police force. Over the past six months, the representation of women in the Bosnian Federation has risen to 3.5 per cent, from 3 per cent, while in the Republika Srpska that figure has increased to 2 per cent, up from 1.4 per cent.