A total of 295 army members will assist the police to secure the facilities specified by the Ministry of Health. This number is flexible, and it doesn’t mean they’ll be on the ground all at once, Crisis Management Center (CMC) acting director Stojanche Angelov said Tuesday.
Thus, nearly 150 police officers and 300 army members will be engaged to secure hospital facilities. The army members won’t be armed and will be deployed only where needed, and only as support to police officers.
“Police officers are the ones who have police powers, while army members will only support the police in maintaining order at hospitals and COVID centers, for the purpose of enabling health workers to do their primary job without any distractions,” Angelov said.
He pointed out that the security situation is fully under control, and incidents are isolated and rare.
At the request of the Main HQ, Angelov said, the MoI developed on Monday a concrete plan for the police forces and the Army.
“The Steering Committee led by Minister Oliver Spasovski held a session today discussing this item. It’s now handed over to the Government, which is to adopt the proposal, so that President Stevo Pendarovski issues an order for activation of the Army in support of the police,” said Angelov.
In addition, Angelov noted that army members will only assist where security support is needed or as a need arises and where there’s high frequency of people, with the exception of private hospitals as they already have their own private security.
Members of special units, he added, will only be deployed in extraordinary circumstances.
Angelov pointed out that in order to ensure transparency, the Action Plan involves inclusion of NGOs whose representatives will participate in meetings but without the right to vote.
