Afghan police need three years of training
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Independent Minds
The Afghan National Police needs another three years of training and investment to be turned into a credible force, said a senior British officer. Lieutenant Colonel Jasper de Quincey Adams, chief mentor to the ANP, said a professional force would not be created overnight, but methods such as "embedded partnering", where British and Afghan forces live and work by each other, were making progress.
Asked how long it would take to turn the ANP into a professional body he said: "The ANA (Afghan National Army) is already a credible force and they've had about three years more investment in terms of money, equipment and training than the ANP, so that's probably a good yardstick to use."
Partnering British troops with the ANP came under the spotlight after the shooting dead of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman last week.
Lt Col de Quincey Adams said: "The ANP are the interface between the government and the people. If you've got an unpopular ANP, you've got an unpopular government, so we've got to make sure that's not the case."
He added: "The ANP take more casualties than anyone. They are in very isolated checkpoints where they come under contact from a dedicated enemy, sometimes at night, and they stay and fight. You've got to take your hat off to that. Time after time they step up to the plate. You can't criticise their bravery."
A registration process which began six months ago and is close to completion means every officer must receive the backing of an elder, or person in authority to join up. The intelligence services are then given access to his name and the opportunity to question him.
Policemen are also being tested for drug use and 400 have been thrown out in the past year after failing tests.
Asked about the impact of last week's shooting, Lt Col de Quincey Adams, of the Queen's Dragoon Guards, said: "Embedded partnering is absolutely the only way to achieve a lasting effect. We've got to live alongside these guys, standing shoulder to shoulder.
"We won't allow the incident to break the bonds we have established. It was a monstrous act, an abomination. We've got to make sure we do everything we can to stop it happening again."
Asked if there could be members of the Taliban within the ranks of the ANP he said: "Of course there could."
Helmand's provincial chief of police, Colonel Asadullah Shirzad, said it would take "several years" to bring the ANP up to a professional standard.
He said: "We are not controlling the whole of the province. Most of the area of Helmand province is controlled by Taliban or enemy forces. They can join the ANP by a different name so we think some of them are inside the ANP."
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[At a Geneva conference on Afghanistan security in April 2002, the United States and other donor countries agreed to support the rebuilding of the security forces in post-Taliban Afghanistan. They established a “five pillars” approach, each to be led by a different nation. The United States took the lead to build the Afghan National Army (ANA). Germany took the lead for the police sector. The other pillars are the justice system (Italy), counternarcotics (Britain), and disarmament of illegal armed groups (Japan)]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanista
Still, apart from the USA no one seems to have done much of a job. Nothing here for the Indy campaign, or its readers. Very unwelcome I expect. A bit like the "discomfort" at Iraq's flowering democracy.
Most media is studiously failing to report Germany's responsibilities. They are too busy assigning responsibilities to the USA or ourselves. And public opinion is turning, as 3 million Afghan girls continue to receive an education they otherwise would not. Can you see what they are doing with their partial reporting?
Afghan Taliban shows administrative flair
Radio Australia, September 1, 2009 11:54:37
One of Washington's top counter-insurgency advisers has warned that the Taliban is ready to take over the government in Afghanistan, with a successful local court network in the country's south, tax collection operations and a new Taliban Ombudsman's office, all directly challenging Kabul's rule. David Kilcullen is an adviser to US General Stanley McCrystal . . .
KILCULLEN: Bernard Fall, a famous counter-insurgency theorist of the 1960s, said a government that is losing to an insurgency isn't being out-fought, it's being out-governed. And that's what's happening in Afghanistan.
So right now the Taliban have about 15 Sharia law courts operating across the south of Afghanistan. And if you hear the term "Sharia law court", you think of women being stoned for adultery and hands being cut off and so on. And that does happen. But actually if you look at the work of these courts about 95 per cent of it is what we would civil or commercial law. So they do stuff like title deeds and land disputes, they sort out grazing and water, they handle inheritances and divorces and stuff like that. So they're actually delivering dispute resolution and mediation services at a local level.
Some Afghans live under Taliban rule – and prefer it
In provinces just south of Kabul, the insurgents have a shadow government that polices roads and runs courts.
The Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 2008 edition
Porak, Afghanistan - After a gang of thieves had continually terrorized an Afghan neighborhood near here months ago, locals decided they'd had enough. "We complained several times to the government and even showed them where the thieves lived," says Ahmad, who goes by one name.
But the bandits continued to operate freely. So the villagers turned to the Taliban.
The militants' parallel government here in Logar Province – less than 40 miles from Kabul, the capital – tried and convicted the men, tarred their faces, paraded them around, and threatened to chop off their hands if they were caught stealing in the future. The thieves never bothered the locals again.
In several provinces close to Kabul, the government's presence is vanishing or already nonexistent, residents say. In its place, a more effective – and brutal – Taliban shadow government is spreading and winning local support.
"The police are just for show," one local says. "The Taliban are the real power here."