| | Deal reached on Afghan police training International Herald Tribune
08/26/2007
By Judy Dempsey
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BERLIN - The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have agreed with the Afghan government to introduce common standards in building up the police force in Afghanistan after several governments criticized lack of coordination since the program was set up five years ago, officials said over the weekend.
The decision comes amid a sharp increase in violence during the weekend. The Interior Ministry said 41 people were killed and at least 6 wounded in suicide bombings and gun battles near the capital, Kabul. In the southern province of Kandahar, 8 Afghan officers were killed after insurgents attacked a police patrol. Two Afghans who were guarding a convey carrying supplies for NATO-led forces were also killed, The Associated Press reported.
The agreement to standardize police training means that different methods adopted by the United States, Germany and other countries will be put under a single new authority: the International Police Coordination Board Secretariat, based in Kabul.
The international approach, agreed to with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, could be the start of a more efficient police force able to move in quickly to maintain security once a military operation has been completed, and provide protection to development agencies so that the local population could see tangible improvements on the ground.
"There was replication previously," Colonel Many-Bears Grinder of the U.S. Army, deputy head of the International Police Coordination Secretariat, said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune over the weekend. "When you have limited manpower and resources, it does not make sense to waste these resources in the duplication of efforts where there are other areas that may need some of those resources."
Grinder is assigned to the Combined Security Transition Command, the American-led military unit that supervises the development of the security forces.
After October 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, Germany and the United States agreed to take over the responsibility of establishing and training a new police force.
Until 2006, the United States has spent more than $1.3 billion in training a force that is mostly focused on border control and highway security in courses lasting about three weeks. Germany, in contrast, spent €70 million, or $95 million, training officers in courses that lasted up to three years and concentrated on community policing.
Security experts have said that the U.S. course was too short, and the German courses too long and bureau- cratic.
The courses also failed to train a force capable of dealing with the growing narcotics trade or the re-establishment of the Taliban, those experts said. The EU took over the German police training mission this summer, increasing the number of trainers from about 50 to nearly 200.
"This is now becoming a coordinated effort," Grinder said. "We also strive for an international joint effort in reviewing the curriculums as well as projects."
She said the training for police officers and for the most basic training levels were now under review. The International Police Coordination Board Secretariat was also working closely with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
One project, she said, involved training police officers about rights. "We are trying to get human-rights offices assigned in every province, down to the district level," Grinder said.
Several organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly complained about poor police training.
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