Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili has signed a memorandum with the United States, assuring American support in reforming the region. The memorandum was counter-signed by William R. Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for drugs and law enforcement. It marks the first agreement between the U.S. and a regional Ukrainian government.
Posting
pictures of the ceremony on his Facebook page, the former Georgian president said
that the U.S. will assist in “reforming customs, administrative services and
the provision of free legal services to volunteers.” Police officers from
California, who are training Odesa’s new police patrol, were also present
during the signing ceremony.
The U.S.
State Department announced the forthcoming agreement and Brownfield’s visit via a website update on July 6, stating that it
“strongly supports” Odesa’s anti-corruption initiative.
“We are
funding an anti-corruption action team of Ukrainian and international experts
in the governor’s office, and launching a new anti-corruption grants program to
broaden and deepen our cooperation with civil society partners,” according to
the State Department announcement.
Listing the
key tenets of the increased support, the statement explains that the U.S. is
providing “financial support and technical expertise to the Ministry of
Internal Affairs as it works to select, train, and equip a new patrol police
force for Odesa.”
America has
committed $15 million to support new police patrol units in Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv.
The July 21 ceremony also marked the official deployment of the new patrol police
in Odesa, who have been trained by the Californian Highway State Patrol to
replace the old force.
Speaking to
reporters at a press briefing held on July 17 at the U.S. embassy
in Budapest, Brownfield stated that he was “proud of the newly-trained police”
in Odesa, but asked that “you not hold us to a standard of seeing nirvana and
paradise arrive in 24 hours.”
He
continued: “Any new police institution requires time to understand their
communities and their people.”
The
American envoy also discussed the future of former police officers who have
been dismissed from the force.
“The hope
is those who in fact are truly good and qualified who wish to remain in law
enforcement will have the opportunity to apply for and then process through
exactly the same training system that the other new cadets have gone through,”
he said. “Those that are found, as unfortunately the majority have been found
so far, to have committed abuses or engaged in corruption or forms of bribery
will not be welcomed back into the national patrol police.”
Sandra MacKenzie can be reached at [email protected].
