GNR - Portuguese force commands respect

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• Added : 486 days ago |
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• Category : News
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• Description : The special Portuguese police, the ...(more)GNR, are more feared on the streets of Dili than the troops from New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia. The international peace keepers, including the NZ contingent, continue to guard East Timor streets to avoid further clashes of unrest and violence in Dili that has killed more than 30 people in the troubled nation, but the silent partner in the East Timor peacekeeping operation backs up coalition forces in times of trouble. At other times the GNR operates under its own rules. Guarda Nacional Republicana - the Portuguese Republican National Guard - is a heavily armed rapid response unit, clad in black. "GNR is a security force with military status...we don't belong to the armed forces or answer to cases of war or crisis, but we are a normal police force," says Commander Goncalo Carvalho. The force has 129 soldiers, three riot squads, a swat team and armed investigators. They only answer to the Timorese government and are not part of the Australian-led coalition. "We use only the necessary force to stop the problems," says Carvalho. As the unrest and violence has erupted in Dili, the GNR are guns and roses - favorites with the Timorese who also fear them. The team arrived in Timor almost a month after the New Zealand troops went in. "They've trained differently...they do different things to us...they come from a different environment from us," says the senior officer with the NZ Defence Force contingent, Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Harker. And New Zealand troops can, and already have, called on the GNR for help. "If there is a riot...they're contacted...and then we liaise with them at the point on the ground and they do their particular job which is quelling riots," Harker says. Carvalho says it's very easy to work with the New Zealanders. "We have very good relations with the commander and with all personnel." While the coalition can move the crowds back, the GNR specialize in it. When they are around trouble makers - local Timorese - flee the scene quickly "They respect the GNR because they know how we work, we have been here in 2000 and 2002 on the United Nations mission and they know we are a riot unit," says Carvalho. Now GNR will train Timor's next police squad under the watch of a new Timorese leader - former Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta. (less)