By Mohamed Vandi in Kenema
The Sierra Leone Police Family Support Unit in Kenema last week held a two-day training of 40 officers of different ranks in Sexual and Gender Based Violence, SGBV.
Head of the unit, Superintendent Mabel Mena Fallah, said the training, funded by UNICEF, focused on getting a standardized procedure to investigate sexual violence across the country.
Participants were trained in case management, age assessment to determine the age bracket of victim and perpetrator, and referral protocol methods to determine who deals with specific cases.
The participants, Fallah said, were not only drawn from the FSU, but also from the “uniform officers” who could help in handling sexual violence offences in areas where FSU officers were not present.
She further explained that the unit had 44 stations countrywide and therefore needed support from other officers to deal with those cases within their localities.
She clarified that not all sexual abuses reported to the FSU could be charged to court because sometimes the complainants themselves had compromised their cases.
“They report the cases to us and again compromise them. Sometimes they even refuse to testify in court as witness and they sometimes facilitate the disappearance of the victim,” she said, adding that despite those challenges there were cases they had successfully dealt with.
(C) Politico 24/09/13
