P03258.045 Accession Number: P03258.045

Description

With the flags of the UN and the State of Cambodia (SOC) in the background, 318911 Military Policeman (MP) Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Robert (Rob) Gear stands in the doorway of one of the barracks at the Military Training Centre, a former refugee reception camp on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. WO2 Gear, a former bodyguard to Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) John M Sanderson, was given the task of establishing a facility to train 2000 members of the SOC's military police. He assembled a staff of ten Australian, French, Malaysian and Canadian instructors from the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) contingents, borrowed equipment and located an ideal camp site just outside Phnom Penh from which seven truckloads of rubbish were removed before it was considered suitable for use. The 18 day courses were designed to give common training to the military police of Cambodia's newly combined armed forces, with thirty lessons in arrest procedure, police restraint techniques, crowd control, crime scene protection, advanced motorcycle riding, humanitarian considerations, report writing and instructional techniques. Students were chosen to become future instructors at the school and over 2000 were processed. Prior to UNTAC's arrival, and the elections of 23 - 28 May 1993, each of the major political factions in Cambodia had its own military wing. One of UNTAC's major objectives was a unified Cambodian military with an allegiance to the SOC, which would, it was hoped, prevent internal fragmentation.

Details

Conflicts

• Period 1990-1999
• Cambodia (UNTAC), 1992-1993