Reform of Afghan police force hindered

By Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul

FT.com site

Published: Sep 03, 2007

Reform of the Afghan police system has been hindered by neglect by the international donor community, according to a Brussels-based think-tank, leaving the force corrupt, inefficient, and politicised.
In a report released Thursday, the International Crisis Group said that despite being paid less than the army, police were being used in anti-insurgency operations for which they are ill-trained and badly equipped. Last year (May 2006-2007), 406 police officers were killed compared with 170 soldiers, it said.
There have been some improvements in terms of equipment and buildings, the report said, but the "return on invested human and financial capital is modest ".
The ICG criticised the lead nation approach in which different donor countries were given responsibility for different security sectors - the US for the Afghan National Army and Germany (recently replaced by the EU Police Mission to Afghanistan) for the police. This, it said, resulted in the "absence of a comprehensive strategy " and a failure to grasp the "centrality of comprehensive reform of the law enforcement and justice sectors ".
The Afghan National Army "received the lion's share of attention though a reformed police and judiciary would have had far more impact on the average citizen's life and perception of the government's legitimacy, "according to the report.
The outcome has been the emergence of a police force that citizens view "more as a source of fear than of security, " ICG said, noting that currently even the numbers of Afghanistan's police force on duty are not known.
The report documents a highly politicised appointments procedure with factional networks and those linked to the drugs world competing for posts, especially ones that oversee smuggling routes. ICG said the Karzai government lacks the political will to tackle a culture of impunity and end political interference, merely shuffling police chiefs from one province to another in response to complaints.
Presidential spokesperson Humayun Hamidzada said: "I have not seen the report as yet, but in general I can say the president and the government are trying seriously to reform the police. The president yesterday called a meeting of police chiefs and spoke of the urgent need of building confidence and regaining the trust of the people. "
Dr Ali Wardak, a senior researcher with the Centre for Policy and Human Development, who has not seen the report either but has been working on the issue of rule of law, said: "One of the problems with the Afghan national police is that it does not operate as an integral part of the justice system and has little to do with prosecution. The judicial system should be one system in its entirety. "