(MENAFN- The Post) THE Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) announced that its raid in Liphakoeng last Thursday had yielded illegal guns and ammunition. The army said the raid was part of its Puff adder operation targeting illegal firearms.
The raid came days after the murder of five people in Fobane in a gruesome attack suspected to be linked to famo gangs in Liphakoeng.
News of the raid was received with much praise on radio and social media, with some cheering the army to fight fire with fire. It however soon emerged that in addition to seizing guns, the army unleashed violence that left some villagers with serious injuries.
Spades, gun butts, sticks, boots and fists were allegedly used as soldiers forced the villagers to either surrender their illegal guns or name those who have.
The operation is now a public relations disaster. The allegations of brute force are irrefutable because the evidence from the pictures and testimonies of victims is overwhelming.
thepost has seen dozens of victims who tell gory stories of the brutal violence inflicted by the army.
The incident is a stuck reminder of the dangers of using the army in law enforcement operations. At the core of the problem is the fact that the army is not trained for policing operations and therefore not oriented for law enforcement.
The differences in the orientation of the police and the army are succinctly explained by Colonel Charles J. Dunlap Jr, an American army officer, in his 1999 article 'The Police-isation of The Military' in the Journal of Political and Military Sociology. Colonel Dunlap Jr writes that“using military forces for tasks that are essentially law enforcement in nature requires a fundamental change in orientation”.
“To put it bluntly, in its most basic iteration military training is aimed at killing people and breaking things. Consequently, military doctrine has forces moving on a target by fire and manoeuvre with a view toward destroying that target”.
He says this is entirely different with the police which gather evidence and arrest suspects in a process restrained by judicial process. He notes that where the army sees enemies of the state the police, when properly oriented,“sees citizens suspected of crimes but innocent until proven guilty in a court of law”.
Colonel Dunlap Jr concludes that“it is difficult for military personnel trained under a regime that emphasizes combat skills to easily align themselves with the more restrained procedure required for police work in a democratic society”.
Although Colonel Dunlap Jr was writing in the context of the United States, the import of his article perfectly applies to Lesotho's army and its involvement in law enforcement.
The brutal force used in many operations against civilians is evidence that the army should stay away from police work or drastically reduce their interaction with civilians.
The history of the army's crime prevention operations has proven that time and again. Aggressively reactionary operations are not effective crime prevention tactics.
Actions are not necessarily solutions.
Raids like the one in Liphakoeng have little long-term impact on what is essentially a long war of attrition among the gangs and a perennial problem of illegal guns.
The real gangsters committing murders and terrorizing the people are most likely to be tipped off before the such operations and skip the country.
As things stand, the soldiers who allegedly assaulted the people in Liphakoeng should be considered crime suspects. Hiding behind claims that this was a sanctioned military operation would not cut it.
The army's intentions are noble but their execution methods are wrong because they don't have the skills or orientation for the job. Their enthusiasm doesn't make up for the fact they have usurped the police's job and they are bad at it.
We are aware that some senior military officers believe the army should be involved in law enforcement because the police is incompetent. They could be right but that doesn't make the army competent for police duties either.
In any case, such contempt is unhelpful in the fight against crime. The army should let the police lead the fight against crime while it provides limited and measured support when needed.
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