Interview: UN police adviser commends China's contribution to international policing

In a world where crime increasingly has no borders, China is helping the United Nations establish a more international policing outlook, the UN's top police official Stefan Feller told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Feller said China's commitment to contributing a permanent police peacekeeping squad to UN peace operations, as announced by President Xi Jinping in September, is an important and rare contribution to international policing.

"What China does by dedicating policing through that squad to peace operations is rare and extraordinary, and very laudable," said Feller.

Policing needs to be international in nature, partly because criminal and terrorist networks know no borders, Feller said.

"Police all over the world need to recognize that crime increasingly has no borders," he said. "Policing is not only domestic in nature but also international."

Yet an international approach to policing is not only about fighting international criminal networks at the international level, but also about having police from around the world help countries affected by conflict re-establish their police forces, which is the most important role of UN Police, Feller said.

"We engage in capacity building for police and other law enforcement organizations in these countries where conflict has led to ...no police or ...a severe incapacity of the police," he said.

Helping local police organizations can also help bring peace in other ways. In some cases, this can help prevent police from contributing to conflicts themselves.

"(UN Police help ensure) that these police organizations are resilient against becoming, as we say, part of a conflict, or become affected by a conflict," he said.

Helping national police organizations weakened by conflict also helps them contribute to international efforts to fight international criminal and terrorist networks, which are particularly likely to gain footholds in countries without rule of law, said Feller.

As UN peacekeepers, UN Police can also engage directly in policing and support for UN peace operations during and after conflicts. For example, said Feller, UN Police helped uphold order in refugee camps and camps for displaced persons in South Sudan.

CHINA'S LONGTIME CONTRIBUTION OF UN POLICE PEACEKEEPING

China is a long-term supporter of UN Police Peacekeepers, which currently draw their numbers from 90 different countries, said Feller.

"Just right now, we see China celebrating 25 years of military peacekeeping contribution," he said. "Fifteen years ago, when I was in Kosovo as a police commissioner I was welcoming the first Chinese police officers, so China has also a very long tradition of sending highly professional police peacekeepers to peacekeeping operations."

He said China has responded to the UN's call for increased support for UN peacekeeping, including UN policing within peacekeeping.

"China has responded to this call and we look forward to examining where the contributions, the offers, the pledges, that China has made fit short-term, medium-term, long-term," he said.

"It's about police officers, it's about equipment, it's about support, it's about financial support, it's about expertise, it's about training," added Feller. Endi