Vice-Minister of Interior visits PNTL Border Patrol and Command Unit Posts in the RAEOA
Vice Minister of Interior (VMI), António Armindo, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Civil Protection (SSCP), Joaquim José Gusmão dos Reis Martins, by a technical team from the Prime Minister’s Office and also by the Ministry Interior’s procurement technicians, on 8 and 9 August 2020, visited the Border Patrol Unit (UPF) Security Posts in Quibiselo and Oesilo, the PNTL (National Police of Timor Leste) Command and the UPF Charlie Company, in the Special Administrative Region of Oe-cússe-Ambeno (RAEOA).
With this visit to the RAEOA, the Vice Minister of Interior ended the round of visits to all UPF posts in the country, to directly verify the facilities conditions and the challenges the UPF members are facing.
On the first day, during the visit to the Quibiselo post, the Vice Minister said “after visiting all UPF posts, on behalf of the Government, I want to congratulate all UPF members, who, even facing difficulties, and with limited resources, continuously demonstrate a spirit of nationalism, fulfilling their mission of ensuring border surveillance”.
Vice Minister also stressed the “UPF’ s and our defence forces, F-FDTL’ s hard work, who have a great spirit to keep the border population safe. I also thank the community for their help in transforming this emergency barrack into a security post for the UPF in Quibiselo”.
António Armindo stated that “the first priority is to build all UPF posts following a unique model, fully equipped, with basic needs and access to the road and electricity”, highlighting the need “for a line of coordinating with the Ministries and the relevant institutions, such as the Ministry of Public Works, the Land and Property Directorate and also the National Development Agency (NDA), to finalize these plans”. He added that, according to the Government’s plan, the next step is to increase the number of UPF staff, namely in the companies ALFA, BRAVO and CHARLIE.
On this occasion, the Vice Minister also inaugurated the Santo António cave, built on the UPF members and the Quibiselo community initiative.
Still on August 8th, the Vice Minister of Interior visited the UPF Charlie Company, at RAEOA, and in this occasion the Company Commander, Chief Inspector Jaimito Hei, give a presentation on the general situation in the RAEOA.
Then, the Vice Minister of Interior and his team, accompanied by RAEOA Police Commander, Chief Superintendent, Mateus Assunção Mendes, met with the Vice-President of the Authority, Maximiano Neno, and the Regional Secretaries, at the residence of the RAEOA administration, in Oebau, Costa village, and also in the integrated post of Sacato, in Nipani Village, to see up close the working conditions of the Health Surveillance teams, Quarantine, Customs and UPF.
On the May 9th, during the visit to RAEOA PNTL Command, António Armindo “congratulated the entire structure for the excellent performance in the work carried out during the previous periods of the state of emergency and now, at a time when we are moving to the 4th period state of emergency”.
The Vice Minister stated that “ the reason that has brought us here is the identification of problems, related to infrastructures for the PNTL development, which are also the community and the General Command of this police force concern. We hope that, for the future, we may contribute so that PNTL becomes an increasing credible police force, that could continue to guarantee people’s trust”.
For his part, the RAEOA Police Commander, Chief Superintendent, Mateus Assunção Mendes, give a presentation to the Vice Minister on the Police service and stated that, throughout this period, he and his entire structure, continued to monitor and permanently follow events in the RAEOA, ensuring that the situation of COVID-19 will not affect the stability, security and peace in the country.
On this visit, the Vice Minister of Interior and his delegation, accompanied by the RAEOA Police Commander, the Vice President of the Authority, Maximiano Neno and the Regional Secretaries, also made visits to the UPF, UPM and BOP security posts and also to the “Rota de Sândalo” International Airport, in Pante Macassar-Oe-cússe Ambeno, to learn about this infrastructure, central in the development concept of the Special Zone of Social Market Economy (ZEESM).
