Ulster officer faces new ethnic challenges
By Patrick Rucker
Irish American Post Belfast Bureau

Almost three years after the Good Friday agreement was signed, the people of Northern Ireland can testify that ending violence is only the first, and probably the easiest step towards peace. Rebuilding a new society from the rubble takes much more time and effort.

Now the people of Kosovo are learning that same lesson and Chris Albiston, an assistant chief constable with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the new head of the United Nations policing operation in Kosovo, is part of the rebuilding effort in the latest war-torn corner of Europe.

Albiston took up his position this past January and will lead the Kosovo police force for 12 months.  In all, Albiston will be responsible for around 8,000 officers -- half of those are drawn from the 53 UN contributing countries while the other half are locally recruited.  In time, it is hoped that the international contingent will turn the responsibility for policing completely into local hands.  But with tensions between  Albanians and Serbs always high and occasionally violent, Assistant Chief Constable Albiston does not expect the UN role in the former Yugoslavian province to end any time soon.

"There have been renewed problems in the Presevo Valley and the political problems are far from over," he explained before leaving Belfast.  "But policing must take place in any society, whatever the political or even military difficulties."

Political and military difficulties have certainly been part of Albiston's service in Northern Ireland, and he believed that policing in a divided society -- plus the experience of working in close liaison with military colleagues -- makes RUC officers exceptionally effective in Kosovo. But while Albiston is proud of his work with the RUC, he acknowledged that what are seen abroad as the force's strengths are a source of controversy at home.

"If you go to Kosovo and you speak to members of the International policing community," Albiston explained, "you will find that those people who have policed in other contexts hold the officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in the very highest regard." 

Maintaining law and order in Kosovo, no less than in Northern Ireland, is a far cry from Albiston's early policing career.  Albiston was working as a London '"bobby" while The Troubles were erupting in Northern Ireland. But with a history degree from Oxford, he quickly rose through the ranks of the London Metropolitan to become a senior detective before moving to New Scotland Yard and a post with the RUC in 1989.

Through that quarter century of service, Albiston has seen police work in many challenging environments. When he returns from Kosovo, he might yet find one more.  By then, most of the recommendations of the Patten Report on police reform should be in place, meaning the RUC will have been replaced by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) with a new badge, uniform and radically altered oversight structures.  Many current members of the RUC are opting to accept a generous early retirement  package rather than find a place in the new force. 

For his part, Assistant Chief Constable Albiston plans on staying. "I hope to be back with this force in January, 2002.  It will have a new name.  It will have many young men and women coming through their careers. I look forward to playing my role in the new police service of Northern Ireland."