Military Police: Helping or Stepping Over PNTL?
After FALINTIL transformed in FALINTIL-Forsa Defesa Timor Leste (F-FDTL) on the 1st February 2001, F-FDTL has been continually training to become a more professional force. F-FDTL established the Military Police in 2005. The Military Police duties are to police F-FDTL personnel in matters of military discipline. It is the Military Police’s duty to police F-FDTL personel when they are involved in military crimes but not civil crimes. But, in the course of this policing, the Military Police will meet many kinds of problems as a result of the realities in Timor Leste. The reality in Timor Leste is that the Military Police often also carry out civil policing duties.
The problems with the Police and the Military Police which this report describes, often stems from a lack of understanding of the law – that is the Military Police Organic Law. This law states that when military personnel commit a civil crime, they must follow the civil process, which is the competency of the PNTL to investigate and process. But the reality is that when F-FDTL personnel commit a civil crime, PNTL is not able to police this or attempt to arrest F-FDTL personnel because these personnel do not cooperate with the PNTL. Incidents like this happen continually and it has resulted in the community not respecting the PNTL’s authority. When incidents occur involving F-FDTL personnel, the PNTL are often not able to make a response, as the people often call the Military Police to deal with it.
This report discovers that the Military Police will often also arrest civilians, but they do make an investigation, but they just interrogate (presta declarasaun) them and then they pass the case to the police for further investigation. This shows that there is confusion in applying the law because the Military Police do not fully understand the law.
This is a complex situation in which the PNTL do not have strong authority over F-FDTL personnel in civil cases, because of this the Military Police stand up and provide policing. On one side, the Military Police do not have the legal authorization to police military personnel involved in civil crimes, on the other side military personnel who are involved in civil crimes do not want the PNTL to investigate or arrest them, which means that the Military Police must violate the law to police them in these matters. In this report, we discover the problems of policing faced by both the Military Police and the PNTL, FM also makes recommendations to the both institutions on this issue:
- Recommend to the Military Police and PNTL to look at the specifics of the Military Police’s organic law, and socialize and explain it to members of the Military Police before they deal with cases of military personnel involved in civil crimes.
- Recommend to the Military Police that they facilitate PNTL in making investigations and arresting military personnel who do not cooperate with the PNTL.
- Recommend to the Military Police that they facilitate PNTL in making investigations and arresting military personnel who do not cooperate with the PNTL.
For more information on this issue, please contact
Nélson Belo,
Director of Fundasaun Mahein
Email: nelson[at]fundasaunmahein.org
Tlp : +670 737 4222
