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8. Arming Tyrants I: American Police Training and the Postcolonial Nightmare in Africa
- University of Massachusetts Press
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Chapter 8 Arming Tyrants I American Police Training and the Postcolonial Nightmare in Africa The neo-colonialism of today represents imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage. - KWAME NKRUMAH , NeD-Colonialism: TIle Last Stage ofImperialism, 1965 Power corrupts, and power corrupts army officers faster than others. - Public safety review, U.S. Embassy, Rwanda, 1965 In 1961 the State Department issued a report outlining the importance of the police to postcolonial development in Africa. It proclaimed that in many nations, the police"[areI organized under rigid central control, live in barracks, operate in large groups, and make police stations into such formidable spots that any sane citizen wants to avoid them. ... Public Safety officials believe we should use whatever leverage we have to induce these countries to establish civilian-oriented, western-style police forces. They recognize that this will be a long and difficult process, but the states of Africa that seek our help are probably more amenable to change than the tradition-bound Latin Americans:'l These comments reveal a great deal about the ideology underlying the police programs. Americans functioning as secular missionaries of modernization were determined to create Western-style police forces, deemed crucial to postcolonial "nation-building:' The only barrier they saw was "traditional" attitudes and customs, which they felt could be overcome through proper tutelage and guidance.' The police programs in practice showed much continuity from the colonial period, when the European powers built up indigenous police forces, often along tribal lines, as part of a strategy of divide and conquer, to control unrest and protect vital economic resources for the purpose of exploiting them.' An important underlying interest was the containment of radical nationalist movements threatening the Western foothold on the continent. There was little serious effort to promote legislative reforms capable of improving police professionalism and little commitment to human rights (as there had been in Japan prior to the "reverse course").' 165 For all the violence associated with their efforts, European colonial officers often took pride in the professional development of the men under their charge, with whom they forged close bonds over the years.' American public safety advisers, by contrast, were frequently rotated in and out of countries and had little knowledge of the local languages and customs and little time to develop the same kinds of relationships. A large degree ofcynicism and frustration consequently accompanied the police training programs, on both sides. In the one scholarly study of the programs in Africa, the political scientist Otwin Marenin concludes that police were "not known for their civility" in countries where the United States was most active.' The main reason was the emphasis on internal security and social control rather than the protection of civil liberties, and America's alliance with dictatorial rulers who maintained power through police repression. Training the Emperor's Legions: American Police Training and State Repression in Ethiopia Between 1953 and 1969, the United States provided $3.3 million in police aid and $147 in military aid- more than in any other country in Africa- to Ethiopia, with the aim of fortifying Emperor Haile Selassie (also known as Ras Tafari). A hero for having mobilized opposition to the 1930s Italian invasion, Selassie had become megalomaniacal, squandering foreign aid on personal monuments as people in the countryside starved. Nevertheless, American policymakers valued Selassie as a bulwark against pan-Arab nationalism and for ensuring access to the Kagnew communications facility outside the Eritrean town of Asmara, which transmitted radio signals from the Middle East to the United States.' Under the Overseas Internal Security Program (OISP, formerly 1290-d), the State Department provided police with over $200,000 in equipment, including Land Rovers, rifles, and radios, and contracted technicians to develop a modern crime lab and record-collection system, allowing for the centralization of data on dissidents. Dozens of officers were trained in the United States, returning to lead counter-subversive units with several veterans of the Greek civil war.' The OISP was headed by Colonel Ralph Selby of the Los Angeles Police Department and Colonel Garland Williams, a Federal Bureau ofNarcotics (FBN) agent who had apprehended the Jewish mobster Yasha Katzenberg in the 1930s and organized the El Paso border patrol in Texas. A native ofPrentiss, MissiSSippi, Williams was chiefofsabotage training with the ass during World War II and helped form Detachment!Ol in Burma, known for trading opium to finance guerrilla activities. He also served with the secret Y Force in Kunming, China, base ofthe Flying Tigers...