Policing in Afghanistan by Marty Edghill, NZ Police

20 November 2007

In November 2002 Afghanistan's President Karzai, speaking on Radio Afghanistan said:

“The true and patriotic police officer is a friend of the people.  People always approach them to get rid of oppression.  If police officers do not have these qualities people would prefer to live under oppression and injustice rather than going to the police since they know that applying to the police will bring them additional problems.”

It is an accepted fact that in the recent past Afghanistan has not had a strong or effective civilian police force.  Any progress that was made in developing their police force during the 1970’s was weakened during the more than two decades of conflict that followed. 

The defeat of the Taliban in 2001 saw anti-Taliban Northern Alliance commanders take advantage of the power vacuum, and fill many of the provincial and district police forces with private militias who had little or no police training or experience.

The untrained Afghanistan Police Force, manned primarily by factional commanders and their bands of soldiers, had high illiteracy rates, little infrastructure or equipment, were underpaid or un-paid and operated within a corrupt and factionalised institutional structure.  The daunting challenge facing Afghanistan and the international community with Afghanistan’s police reform was the creation of an effective civilian police force from this group.

This was the disheartening context in which Afghanistan’s Police reform commenced in 2002.  New Zealand Police first deployed personnel to Afghanistan in March 2005 and the current personnel are one of approximately 25 countries or international organisations that are actively assisting the Afghanistan National Police (ANP) Capacity Development Programme. 

New Zealand Police work very closely with the New Zealand Defence Force’s Provincial Reconstruction Team (NZ PRT) in Bamyan Province.  The NZ Police teams consist of three personnel who work at the Bamyan Regional Police Training Centre and the Bamyan Police Provincial Headquarters. 

Day-to-day activities for NZ Police personnel consist of training, coaching or mentoring, facilitating the provision of equipment and infrastructure, restructuring, pay-roll, rank reform and other specialist project work. Accepting the unique opportunity and work-load of working in Afghanistan with the ANP necessitates a 6 or 7 day working week with most working days starting before dawn and many evenings spent preparing paperwork, documentation and reports for a variety of national or international stakeholders.

Some 5 years after Afghanistan’s Police reform activities began in earnest and 3 years after NZ Police commenced work in Bamyan Province there is still a huge amount of work to be completed.  President Karzai’s ‘vision’ of a civilian ANP who are patriotic, friends of the people, and who will ultimately rid Afghanistan of oppression is still a long way off. 

Due to the multiplicity and sheer diversity of the countries regions and policing needs, progress has been slower than hoped. Shared visions and strategies for the ANP across all the Provinces have  impacted on the pace of progress. For example, the increase in the insurgent activities in Southern Afghanistan has seen the need for several ‘temporary’ fix measures whereas in Bamyan Province the progress is being made slowly but surely towards a community policing philosophy.  Another indicator that policing is improving in Bamyan Province is the fact that no ANP have died on duty in Bamyan Province since NZ Police have been deployed, whereas 627 (1% of the ANP workforce) died last year alone within other Provinces. 

Given the starting point of the ANP in 2002, it might have been somewhat unrealistic to expect that within 5 years complete reform across the whole of Afghanistan would be successfully achieved by now. That said, it is certain that much progress and many notable achievements have been made in training and equipping the ANP. The overall capability and competence of ANP within the Bamyan Province has definitely improved. 

The Regional Training Centre is fully functional, has trained over 2000 trainees, 1600 of whom have returned to their police districts within the Province. The new Bamyan Provincial Police Headquarters building is nearing completion, pay-roll reform is well progressed and the ANP restructure ‘the Tashkil” is to be completed by March 2008.

New Zealand Police are as identifiable and successful within the Bamyan Province as they have been within other international arenas where capacity development work and a community based policing approach has been adopted. 

Although the commitment in Bamyan Province by NZ Police will be for a finite period, staff have been assured that the NZ Police assistance to the Province will not be forgotten. We are already seeing this in the smiles of the children and the genuine appreciation of the communities at large.

Ends

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