The Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Black Rock Camp in Nadi will soon turn into a peacekeeping school.
This was revealed by the RFMF Commander, Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga.
“We have an intention to build the peacekeeping school at Black Rock in Nadi and it is one of our major projects in the last few years. We will be prioritising it now to be completed in the next few years,” he said.
He said they had submitted a plan to Government in the last two months to solicit funds to start the infrastructure.
“We have also asked some of our major donors to contribute to this.”
This will become a regional institution where the RFMF will invite, not only peacekeepers, but also disaster management personnel to come in and use the facility for their training.
Brigadier-General Tikoitoga said they had sent a proposal to the United Nations of its peacekeeping training initiative and it had been well received.
“The UN has been continually updated by our Permanent Representative in New York, Peter Thomson.”
The UN is waiting for them to build the school before they could get funding from their major donors.
That was the initial plan so that Government gave them more funds to start with the infrastruture and would ask for more.
On staffing, Brigadier-General Tikoitoga said the majority would come from the Force Training Group. They would also have staff and experts on peacekeeping and disaster management from the UN. The RFMF, he said, had contacted some universities to cross-credit some of their courses to their officers.
Meanwhile, Namita Khatri, Charge d’Affaires to the Security Council’s Open Debate on ‘Peacekeeping Operations: United Nations and Regional Partnerships in Peacekeeping and its Evolution’ said: “Fiji itself was in the process of establishing an integrated peacekeeping training institute, services of which Fiji will extend to regional partners once established.”
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