New heads at EUPOL and EUSEC RD Congo
(BRUSSELS2) Two new leaders will be appointed in the European missions deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These appointments must be endorsed this Friday at the COPS, the political and security committee of the EU. Portuguese General Antonio Martins will lead the EUSEC mission (assistance for security reform) while Belgian divisional commissioner Jean-Paul Rikir will lead the EUPOL mission (assistance for the reform of the police forces).
A Portuguese paratrooper at the head of EUSEC Congo
Accustomed to international missions, Antonio Martins is today the commander of the Azores Military Zone (since 2008). Born in 1953, he began his military career in 1974 with the Regiment of Parachute Chasseurs, the historic year of the Carnation Revolution. He then attended the courses of the Military Academy of Lisbon and the Institute of Higher Military Studies in Lisbon. Parachutist instructor at the School of Airborne Troops, Commander of Parachute Company and Commander of the Support and Services Company at 31e Tancos Parachute Battalion, he is a seasoned parachutist with over 1000 certified jumps. He also held several General Staff positions: Chief of G1 of the Independent Airborne Brigade and Chief of G3 of Tancos Airborne Troops. In terms of international missions, note that he was team leader of the first "Defence" mission, the European Community Observation Mission in Yugoslavia (1991). He then returned to the Balkans, with his battalion in Bosnia Herzegovina for a NATO-SFOR mission, in the years 1999-2000. He was one of the first officers of the EUSEC Congo mission, in June 2005, as advisor to the Chief General of the Armed Forces of the DR Congo for the defense sector reform process.
A Belgian "gendarme" at the head of EUPOL
For Jean-Paul Rikir, the EUPOL mission in Congo is really nothing new. He has been its current deputy head since November 2008, more specifically in charge of the reform of the Congolese National Police (PNC) and its interface with the justice system (judicial police).
Born in Welkenraedt (eastern Belgium) in 1959, he is a former gendarme, trained at the gendarmerie officers' school in 1981 and at the University of Liège in criminology, he first served in the squadron infantry of the 4th and 5th mobile gendarmerie groups (1983 to 1986) before leading the platoon of the POSA (the anti-crime units of the gendarmerie) of Liège - Luxembourg (1986 to 1993). He then became head of the gendarmerie's purchasing department and then director of this department within the Federal Police, after the police-gendarmerie merger (1993 to 2008).
Function interrupted for the first time by a mission in the international field, in November 2005 (until March 2007), within the European police mission in Palestine (EUPOL COPPS), as head of administration and finance. Not an easy task in the context of suspicion of ambient corruption such as the victory of Hamas in the elections in January 2006.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
