Afghan police force prompts questions

By AHMAD KAWOSH

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — While the Obama administration is counting on Afghanistan’s security forces being able to defend the country by the summer of 2011, a commander with the Afghan National Army questions if his nation’s police force will be up to the task.

Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahmani, commander of the 209 Shahin Army Corps, based in Mazar-e-Sharif, said that over the past year forces under his command have driven the Taliban out of the four northern provinces over which he is responsible.

And in each instance, Rahmani said, the police have been unable to hold territory and allowed the insurgents to move back in.

“Kunduz, Baghlan, Faryab and Balkh provinces have been cleared of (insurgent) groups several times,” Rahmani said. “But the achievements have not been protected. After a short time, the insurgents are able to retake the territory. So the army conducts another operation. This leads to rising casualties and low morale.” Mohammad Ali Rezayi, the deputy commander of the 303 Pamir Zone Corps, the police force responsible for the north and northeast of the country, blames a lack of manpower for his force’s inability to hold the area.

“It is very difficult to control the vast areas of the north and the northeast without more police,” he said. “We have only 60 policemen in Baghlan-e-Markazi district, which has more than 3,000 inhabitants. Other districts also face shortages. With the current force level, we cannot maintain permanent control.”

Competence

But Rahmani rejects that explanation. Instead, he not only questions the competence of the country’s police force, but said he believes many local officers are actively cooperating with the insurgents, making deals with them and sometimes even fighting with them against army units.

“Police in Baghlan and Kunduz surrendered their weapons to the Taliban,” he charged. “The police and the (insurgents) are from the same area, they collude with each other.

“I am only talking about what I have seen with my own eyes,” he added. “The police, along with the Taliban, were collecting tithe from people in Faryab province. When the army arrived, the police started fighting against the army jointly with the Taliban.” Rahmani’s solution to the problem is to require that police officers be deployed outside their home provinces.

“Police from Balkh should be sent to Baghlan, and those from Baghlan should go to Faryab or some other province,” he said. “This would make it more difficult for them to establish ties with (insurgents).” Sayed Asghar Asghari, operations manager for the 303 Pamir Zone Corps, quickly dismissed that idea as impractical.

“Police serve where they are recruited,” he said. “They would never agree to go to other provinces.” Rezayi, the head of the police in the region, defended his force’s performance and called Rahmani’s allegations baseless and irresponsible.

“The police are committed to national security,” he said. “We have taken more casualties than any other security organization. This shows that the police do not deal with (insurgents).”

X Ahmad Kawosh is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.