Krishna Kumar
Tamang, PhD
Generally
it is assumed and viewed that where crimes occur there poverty exists. The most
prestigious award of Nobel Peace Prize winner a renowned criminologist Jane
Addams had the opinion. But contrary to that it has been obvious to the concept
no longer acceptable as the countries in the western hemisphere have higher
rate of crimes as compared to those of particularly Asia in terms of economic
progress lagging behind to the developed ones. It is not the matter of economic
or any other facets of social life that count for crimes rather other factors
governing the psycho status of the people of the land. There is no doubt that the
commission of crimes are mostly somehow related to economy of the concern and
so does the statistical data establish but it would be not appropriate to
presume as the sole cause. It could be one of the major factors of crime
causation.
Interestingly sometimes people speculate and even some retirees of security
agencies fail not to guess of seeking alternate for Nepal Police seemingly in
progress. However, so far no standing of any base for it has come to surface.
By virtue of nature, man is a fighting creature and the habitat of mankind sans
crimes would be a mere myth. The topics of safety and security encompass vague
fields and none of any single force ever would be suffice to cover all the
aspects of it. Should we pursue the history since the Stone Age when security
deemed high for safe human living in family and ultimately that led to
emergence of society. On the other hand more the heads more conflicts require
security.
From
the cradle to grave everywhere human is in chain and the dependence on others
is enormous. As to ease life security comes foremost and once it is guaranteed
then comes turn for planning and economic development of the country. What the
pole is for a tent so is the security matter to a country. Well established and
secured societies have their systems organized and managed whereby safety is
granted to her people. Annals of battles in the past describe the most of the
reasons aroused due to the encroachment and dispute over the land possession.
The Great Wall of China depicts the fact emphasizing on the security. The North
and South Korea peninsula, Israel and Lebanon, India and Pakistan; and China
and Japan have long issues few in numbers to cite for examples.
Armed
Police Force was raised following the insurgency in Nepal in the year 1998.
Throughout that period of insurgency APF had full compliance to international
norms and international humanitarian laws as of the Article 3 of Geneva
Convention. It never had dilemma in discharging its duties, unlike some agency,
towards the nation and the people due to the clear mandates mentioned in the
Armed Police Act, 2058 itself as;
i.
to control any ongoing or would be armed conflict within the country,
ii.
to control any ongoing or would be armed rebellion or separatist activities
within the country,
iii.
to control any ongoing or would be
terrorist activities within the country,
iv.
to control any ongoing or would be riot
within the country,
v.
to assist in rendering relief to natural
calamity or epidemic victims,
vi.
to rescue any citizen or else from
hostage captivity or in the event of occurrence of heinous and serious crimes
or unrest of grave nature or of anticipation,
vii.
to guard border of the country,
viii.
to assist under Nepalese Army in the events of ingression,
ix.
to protect public vital installations, infrastructures and other facilities
assigned by the Government of Nepal,
x. to protect the personalities and public
vital installations, institutes and other facilities considered to be given
protection by the Govt. of Nepal,
xi.
to perform tasks assigned as per this
act and under its regulations or in accordance to other prevalent laws,
xii.
to perform other tasks assigned from
time to time by the Govt. of Nepal.
The
difference of crime prevention and crime investigation need to be distinguished
in between. APF in Nepal has elaborated responsibilities for its personnel in
Section 4 Article 24(2) of the APA. APF is not a substitute, neither
alternative body nor competitor of any security mechanism of the government.
For the diversified spectrum of security aspects APF of any country is in great
demand worldwide in every respect.
Nevertheless,
in maintaining law and order though APF supposedly should be backing the
forefront first responder namely Nepal Police seldom outsiders negligently
interpret otherwise. Once an order issue was there in favour of APF in terms of
deployment in crime investigation illustrating for the primary case handling
which meant the protection of crime scene till the arrival of crime
investigation team naturally of Nepal Police. To which curiosity was to wonder
how come it be possible. Perseverance and protection of evidence and exhibits
is not the interference to Nepal Police job rather assistance for the time
being until the presence of concern, lest they get tampered or spoiled. Crime
Investigation related to judiciary and public handling part is complete out of
track for APF. The task of crime prevention services is achieved not only by the
promotion of social order and social justice but by the productive and
necessary protection of commerce, industry and the economy.
The Special Programme introduced in Nepal in the year 2009
for effectiveness of peace and security deepened the public and government
faith towards APF. The same continues till date and its feedback asserts for
APF camps in their neighbourhood while the wrong doers take APF for dreadful
entity. These are the clear indicators of APF reliability in prevention of
lawlessness and crimes in the country.
Due to the improvement in the security situation and the curbing of criminal
activities including the smuggling and trans-border crimes have remarkably been
noticed with hike in revenue collection. A gap of eleven years is there in
between the days of APF inception and today where the security environment has
got several turns with the changes in ruling system and governments. The
internal conflict has got transformed and in perpendicular the APF role has
expanded with new developments within the country.
APF has successful attempts to establish its image as a protector, servant and
people friendly. As anywhere else in Nepal too the government employees get
salary with the taxes collected from people. Being an integral part of society
APF is not an exception. APF personnel too pay equal tax as any countryman,
unlike Armed Forces of neighbouring countries, subject to tax free privilege
like exemption of excise duties on consumable commodities, automobiles and
electronics.
This scribe garnered opinions from some intellectuals namely Radheshyam Malla,
a host and programme organizer in popular channel of Himalayan TV in Kathmandu.
He has his clear-cut views as APF should apprise its prime job of giving
protection against inimical elements to the public. The act of prevention means
all needful doings to barre the committing of crimes beforehand whereas
investigation means finding responsible clues, reasons, actors, and accomplices
including causing factors in already committed acts of crime. A promising
police officer from Russia also has views not much different as from others.
Evgeny Omelchenko, Chief Arms Instructor at Training Centre served United
Nations field missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and other African nations for
international policing and has distinct marks over the jobs of armed police
from the community policing. He opines armed police is meant for special
purpose, emergency situations and therefore should involve in its mandate
leaving the rest for normal policing to civil police.
Police has also roles in prevention of crimes; however prevention doers like
APF cannot be a part of crime investigation unless prescribed by the law of the
land. To be more precise civil police has dual roles of prevention
simultaneously investigation in criminal cases while armed police restricted to
prevention and no further other than to assist the civil administration and
police in their performance.
References
Paranjape, P. N. (1994).
Criminology and Penology.
Bhubanchand Bhatta and Dr.
Gobindaprasad Thapa. (2013). Kasautimaa Nepal.
Armed Police Act, 2058
Published in:
Armed Police Day
Special
Publication 2013, Nepal
Year-12,
Issue-1, 1st November 2013
http://www.hq.apf/includes/class/publication2070.html
No comments:
Post a Comment