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Detained Fijian troops well trained: RFMF Commander

September 6, 2014 8:34 pm

The 45 Fijian troops detained by Syrian rebels are well trained on how to handle themselves in such situations.

Fiji Military Forces Commander Mosese Tikoitoga says Fiji has over thirty years of peace keeping experience and there is no reason to say the right training was not provided.

“They’ve been trained for more than two months. We’ve continuously put them on rigorous training and then they went into peacekeeping specific training and we do scenario training on what they could get on the other side of the world. But no doubt, everybody was prepared to go and we don’t send anybody without putting them through the preparatory training for such training.”

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Tikoitoga admits, it hasn’t been an easy time as the Commander of the RFMF.

“For me as Commander, although the priority and major concernand perhaps a large chunk of my time is these 45 and their families, there’s another 1,000 Fijians that are in different parts of the world doing peacekeeping duties, that we still have to be concerned with. We have to give some time to them and ensure their families continue to be supported.”

The RFMF Commander says the Military is also making sure that the families of the detained men are looked after well.