# Risks fail to deter Afghan police - BBC News



## Yrys (18 Dec 2008)

I'm not sure if it's in the right forum.

 Risks fail to deter Afghan police, BBC News

Bristling with weapons, the dark green jeep bumped along the road with 
four police hunched in the back.

Each man had an AK-47 and a young strapping officer, Ahmed Fawad, 
clutched the automatic rifle mounted over the jeep's cabin. His eyes 
surveyed the street like a hawk - looking for any hint of trouble in the 
making. "I've had to use this weapon a lot," said Mr Fawad, explaining 
his readiness.

Being a policeman in Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous jobs 
in the world - almost four police are killed every day. In 2007, around 
1,200 police were killed in Afghanistan, with figures set to be similar 
for 2008. According to the US military, that is _three times the casualty 
rate of the Afghan national army_.

*Police academy*

A new report on the Afghan police released on Thursday by the think-tank, 
the International Crisis Group, said that "too much emphasis has 
continued to be placed on using the police to fight the insurgency 
rather than crime". In a country wracked by violence, police manning 
checkpoints in the south and east of the country are targeted on an 
almost daily basis by the insurgents.

In the face of this onslaught, unsurprisingly, other police work - 
such as investigating crimes - tends not to get done. Mr Fawad 
knows these deadly dangers first hand. Only three weeks ago, 
he and his colleagues were caught in a firefight in Logar province, 
just half an hour's drive from Kabul. Three policemen were killed 
in the attack.

Despite the obvious dangers, new recruits still sign up. At the Kabul 
police academy a fresh-faced cadet said he had joined the police 
to serve his country. Most of the other recruits muttered the same mantra.

In Afghanistan jobs are hard to come by and police work may be 
the only opportunity for employment for the tens of thousands of men 
- and a few hundred women - who have signed up.

*Four-month training*

The training of the Afghan police has been beset by difficulties. Before 
the American-led invasion to oust the Taleban in 2001, there was little 
by way of policing in the country. Germany then took the lead in training 
but it was largely seen as ineffective. The US is now the primary trainer 
and has committed $3.8bn in 2007 and 2008 to improve the police, who 
are mistrusted by many Afghans and seen as notoriously corrupt.

The officials at the Kabul police academy, however, take pride in their 
basic four-month training programme. But even they admit there are 
still massive problems - not enough instructors or classrooms - and 
very little hands-on training.

"We tell the recruits how to use the radios but we don't have enough 
radios to let them practise," says Jalludin Siddique, a senior official 
at the academy. "It's the same with finger-printing - we teach the 
techniques but the men never actually get to do it."

One morning about 100 police cadets marched around the parade 
ground. It was smart and orderly. For many of these men, drill 
practice is the easy part. Very soon, many of them will be putting 
their lives on the line to police this country.


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