| KABUL (AP): Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.
A strong, unified national police force has long eluded Afghanistan, a country torn by occupation and warfare for hundreds of years. But with the West now attempting to help turn the country from a failed state into at least a functioning one, the police will play a crucial role in making cities safe places to live.
That's needed to win the loyalty of ordinary Afghans, many of whom note that under the repressive rule of the Taliban, at least crime was low.
President Hamid Karzai brought the issue into sharp focus during his inaugural address Thursday, when he said he wanted Afghan security forces to take the lead in securing the nation within five years.
But some analysts estimate it could take a decade before cities can be secured by a police force that is riddled with corruption, unprofessionalism and illiteracy.
"You really do not have anything like the level of support or training for the police you have for the army," said military analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The leadership within the police is much weaker, much less well trained, and far more corrupt." They often have contacts with "power brokers, criminals, drug lords and the Taliban," he said. If the situation is not remedied, said Cordesman, Afghanistan "risks losing the war."
Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, speaking Saturday during a ceremony establishing a new NATO headquarters to oversee higher-level training and mentoring for Afghan forces, described the police as "a very decisive factor and the most important element in our public security and law enforcement."
Police on the street and manning checkpoints often find themselves on the front line of a virulent insurgency, making them three times more likely to be killed than Afghan soldiers. From January 2007 to July this year, 1,973 police were killed, compared with 735 Afghan troops.
"We are expected to fight insurgents, not just criminals," said Khan Mohammed Zazai, police chief in the violent southern province of Kandahar. He said his force faced shortages of assault rifles, machine guns, pistols, ammunition and four-wheel drive vehicles.
"There would be no need for more sophisticated weapons if we did not need to fight an insurgency. But we are fighting an insurgency as well. |