Mark Dodd, On board the Curtis Wilbur, East Timor – The deck of an American guided missile destroyer might seem a strange place to train East Timorese police cadets but one hand-picked group of recruits learned some valuable lessons recently.

Twenty-seven East Timorese cadets, comprising the best and brightest of the country's new police force, were put through an innovative and intensive course in leadership skills and human rights training by veteran officers from the United States Justice Department.

It began with a two-hour tour of the warship. Then classes started in earnest, the students dressed in neatly pressed blue uniforms of the Timor Lorosae Police Service.

Sitting attentively under a green canvas awning on the stern deck, the cadets began by answering probing questions from John Coyne, a senior trainer.

"What examples of leadership have you seen on this ship?" he asked. There was a moment of silence before one cadet raised his hand and replied: "They have good security. They are patrolling in small boats outside and patrolling inside the ship."

More hands were raised. "We've seen supervision," said another. "This is a well-run ship. There is good management," a third student said.

"Did you see any officer mistreating enlisted personnel?" Mr. Coyne asked. "No," the class answers in unison. "So, here we have an example of human rights before your eyes," Mr. Coyne said. "The officers respect the enlisted men and the enlisted men respect their officers."

The US team coordinator, Al Vasquez, says the aim of the course is to transform attitudes so the new East Timor police force will be a pillar of respect in the community rather than a symbol of oppression and corruption, which typified the service during 24 years of Indonesian occupation that ended in September 1999. At least 80 percent of the cadet group taken onto the Curtis Wilbur once served in the discredited former Indonesian police force in East Timor, Mr. Vasquez said.

So far some 300 East Timorese, 15 percent of them women, are undergoing a 12-month training course supervised by United Nations Civilian Police, known as CivPol. A total force of 3,000 is expected to be recruited before the UN mission ends. Training involves three months in the classroom at the new East Timor police academy, formerly the Indonesian police headquarters.

Recruits are then posted to CivPol stations for three months where they accompany UN police on their rounds. After six months, the trainees are put on probationary assignment and posted to stations throughout the territory.

Trainers say that the East Timorese police cadets are fast learners.

Australian and American police officers recently called to help quell a riot in the suburb of Becora in the capital, Dili, praised their East Timorese colleagues, many of whom had been punched and targeted as "traitors" by the rioters, a gang of thugs from the eastern end of the island.

Cool-headed East Timorese police trainees, including several women, were instrumental in defusing a recent violent confrontation between Portuguese riot police and university students. "They have the language and know the culture," said one Australian Federal Police officer serving with the UN mission.

The shipboard course is part of an annual $1 million US program to assist the development of the East Timor police. It has been devised in response to the needs of new and emerging democracies like East Timor. Since its creation in 1986, the program has been used in nearly 60 countries.

Known officially as the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, it uses a skilled cadre of experienced federal and state law enforcement officials like Mr. Coyne, a Korean War veteran. The program teaches a curriculum ranging from crime scene investigations and forensics to administration and public accountability of police.

[The writer, a journalist based in East Timor, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.]