Romanian Military Police

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Romanian Military Police
Romanian Military Police Humvee
Active	1893 - present
Country	Romania
Branch	Romanian Land Forces
Type	Military Police
Size	four battalions
Garrison/HQ	Bucharest

The Romanian Military Police (Poliţia Militară) is the military police of the Romanian Armed Forces. It was formed in 1990, immediate after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, although the Romanian Gendarmerie performed military police duties since 1850.

1 Mission
2 History
3 Current state
- 3.1 International missions
  - 3.1.1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (2000 - 2004 )
  - 3.1.2 Iraq (2003-2006)
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Mission

MP's during exercise

Controls military personnel and documents; ^[1]
Controls and maintains discipline in places/crowded areas frequented by military personnel and eliminates any conflicts between military personnel or military personnel and civilians; ^[1]
Maintains security during Military exercises/parades;^[1]
Prevents illegal introduction of devices/materials/substances in military units/bases;^[1]
Maintains safety and discipline at military tribunals;^[1]
Search and arrests deserters in cooperation with the Police, Gendarmerie, Romanian Intelligence Service, etc;^[1]
Prevents, independently or in cooperation with other forces, stealing of military equipment, ammunitions, armament and any other devices from military bases;^[1]
Assures, at orders, security of the military detainees, and during their transportation;^[1]
May undertake (it has capabilities) search and rescue/evacuation missions, together with the Romanian Inspectorate for Emergency Situations/Gendarmerie/other Romanian Ministry of Interior forces, of civilian/military persons, in case of earthquakes, floods, disasters, etc, and takes measures of limiting/eliminating their causes (where possible) and their consequences.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

The history of the Romanian Military Police is close related to the history of the Romanian Gendarmerie, being a part of it. It should be noticed that at the origins the gendarmerie was set up as a part of the Ministry of War. Therefore, the archaic term of „troops’ police” could be found starting with 1850 in armed forces' structure but the establishment day of the military police should be considered 5 November 1893. At that day King Carol I has promulgated the Law of Villages’ Gendarmerie. As a part of these corps, the Military Police branch should:

act as a judiciar police;
search and arrest AWOLs and disobedient troops;
arrest all military personnel without military documents while on leave;
searching for armed gangs, considered dangerous;
repel the attacks against guards;
repel the attempts of prisoners to escape;
search for illegal depots of weapons and ammunition;
inform the population about mobilisation.

In 1908, 1911 and 1913, new laws and regulations regarding the activity of military police forces were set up in order to increase the efficiency of it. To avoid any confusions, the new Law of Gendarmerie promulgated on March 24 1908, brought the following specification:

Art.6: The Gendarmerie corps are a part of the Army. The dispositions of military rules and orders are applicable except some specific situations because of it’s mixed organisation – both civilian and military - and specific tasks.
Art.7: The officers will be recruited from the army’s personnel. The nominated persons will be assigned to gendarmerie troops by the order of the prince who will release a High Royal decree.

The same law stated that: „During military operations the gendarmerie will act as Military Police in order to manage accurately the military traffic, the escort of prisoners and to assure the security of main objectives and installations”.

In 1913 – 1916 there were made some modifications regarding the MP organisation and strength. New assignments were made especially related to the security of some important economical areas (oil fields) and factories (mainly those factories who were producing military equipment and machinery).

[edit] World War I

During World War I the Military Police corps have been participated among all other forces performing all specific tasks even combat missions, providing even assistance to civilian population. The evolution of the events placed the gendarmerie alternatively under Ministry of War and Ministry of Interior command.

In 1917 the gendarmerie was reassigned to Ministry of War at Ops. Army and Army brigades. Therefore gendarmerie detachments were assigned at Army Core and General Staff headquarters as well. These detachments were led by infantry officers and the strength consists of 27 gendarmes/military policemen.

During the interwar period, the gendarmerie was placed again under Ministry of Interior command, until 12th September 1940.

[edit] World War II

In the World War II starting with 22nd June 1941, as part of Axis troops, the gendarmerie/military police performed following main activities,:

preventing terrorist activities;
guarding civilian and military installations;
law enforcement;
repel the attacks of enemy airborne and paratroopers;
surveillance of opponent/anti fascist parties, etc.

The Law #264 from 22th April 1943 stipulated that: „The gendarmerie is a military corp. The main mission is to assure the activity of civilian and military police cross country. It is subordinated to Ministry of War but could perform activities when the minister of Interior asks for that”.

On 23rd August 1944, the Romanian Government decided to leave the Axis and join the Allies troops. Therefore, the Romanian Army started to fight against the Nazi and their sympathisers. The main objective was to take back the region of North Transylvania - Vienna Treaty - and liberate Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Main mission accomplished by MP structures/units were:

to identify enemy soldiers, to find their ammo and weapons depots and neutralise them;
to block/restrict the enemy movements along MSRs and ASRs;
to disarm the squads/small groups of enemy soldiers;
to arrest/annihilate enemy paratroopers and airborne;
to identify and guard enemy depots, assuring the security of the sites;
to perform searches and arrests of enemy troops or pro Nazi;
to arrest and annihilate the pro Nazi partisans from Transylvania;
to find and destroy pro Nazi or Hungarian propaganda;

Meanwhile, other gendarmerie/MP units acted as light infantry, performing specific activities or fighting in close combat.

After the WWII, the military police was disbanded and the personnel was sent to other structures.

[edit] The communist regime

Starting with 1947, the communist regime established some separate branches as parts of the Ministry of Defense to deal with military police matters. As a result to this, there were set up Law and Discipline, Guide and Control of Military Traffic, Military Justice and Military Jail branches. Being afraid of the power of these structures and in order not to interfere with the communist political goals, each branch was assigned to different departments, breaking the chain of command - and making them quite inefficient.

[edit] Current state

Romanian MP in action.

In 1990, after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, the Ministry of National Defence decided to unify all the communist MP-type branches in a single structure entitled Military Police. On 12th March 1990, the Minister of National Defence issued an order to establish MP units/subunits all over Romania. Starting with 15th May 1990, the 265 MP Battalion, the 286, 282, 295 and 302 companies were established under the Land Forces command.

Due to reorganisation of the Romanian Land Forces, starting with 1999 some MP Companies were transformed into MP platoons and squads and some of them were reassigned to logistic or combat support units.

Starting with 2006, four Military Police-Guard Battalions were set up. Their main mission is to guard sensitive military headquarters and installations. The total strength of these battalions is about 3000 personnel.

[edit] International missions

Romanian Military Policemen in Kosovo.

[edit] Bosnia and Herzegovina (2000 - 2004 )

A Romanian military policemen platoon (23 members) was detached in Bosnia and Herzegovina, since July 2000, as part of the SFOR (until December 2004), as well as part of the EUFOR (since December 2004). Their main missions are to patrol within local police and to maintain public order. ^[2]

[edit] Iraq (2003-2006)

Soldier from the 265th Military Police Battalion in Iraq

Subunits of the 265th Military Police Battalion were detached since July 2003, in Nasiriyah, Iraq, under the operational command of the Italian troops in Iraq. They participated mostly to reconnaissance missions, as well as VIP protection and traffic control. The mission ended in August 2006. ^[3]