ICRC advising police in Myanmar

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday it started a five-day training seminar in Myanmar to help train police in restive Rakhine state.

The seminar run by the ICRC will bring in 35 police officers from Rakhine to Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw. There, they'll receive training on international policing standards and the appropriate use of police powers.

"We are delighted to continue expanding our dialogue with the Myanmar police force," Jug Montani, the ICRC's head of delegation in Myanmar, said in a statement Tuesday. "We look forward to fruitful exchanges of experience this week and in the future."

The ICRC seminar is its first for police officers in Rakhine.

Last week, the ICRC said its representatives were in Myanmar training surgeons how to deal with war wounds in Kachin state.

Clashes with armed groups in Myanmar are undermining political reforms made since 2010 elections.

Communal violence in Rakhine, a western coastal state, has displaced thousands of people. In November, the European Union said it was alarmed by ongoing fighting between the separatist rebels in the northern Myanmar state of Kachin and the nation's military.

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