Canada giving $10M to fund Afghan police

[GAP]

Canada giving $10M to fund Afghan police: MacKay
Updated Mon. Jan. 8 2007 7:59 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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On the final day of his visit to Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay announced $10 million in funding for Afghan police officers.

"Canada's new government believes that providing a national civilian police force with an adequate and regular salary is critical to helping restore security and the rule of law in Afghanistan," MacKay said in a press release. "Our contribution will help further this objective, resulting in a more professional police force to better serve the people of Afghanistan."


MacKay also presented the provincial chief of police with approximately 1,500 police jackets and 2,500 pairs of winter gloves.


"The equipment that we are providing today will similarly enable the Afghan National Police to more effectively perform their duties."


Canada will make its contribution through the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA). LOTFA has helped institute a payroll system that, for the first time, allows officers to regularly receive their salaries directly from banks instead of through unreliable and irregular payments.

Later Monday, MacKay will fly to Pakistan for talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on border security and cracking down on Taliban living and training in the country.

"The visit to Afghanistan is second in priority on this visit... it's the meeting with President Musharraf that's so bloody important because Pakistan holds the key to improving the situation in Afghanistan," Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Lewis MacKenzie told Canada AM on Monday.

"You're fighting an enemy whose head is constantly being re-supplied by the tail parked across the border in the northwest frontier of Pakistan, that's the critical problem and the reason why there has to be an industrial-strength diplomacy (push) and a full court press by the international community, not just Canada."

MacKenzie said it's too easy for Taliban fighters to get weapons from Pakistan.

"When the Taliban needs to be re-supplied some of them are just driving across the border on the backs of trucks and they're not even stopping it."

On Sunday, MacKay pushed the message that the Afghanistan mission is going well and Canada's support is firm.
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[Edward Campbell]

This is good news.

One of the lessons from previous successful counter-insurgency operations is that a reliable, relatively uncorrupted local police force is vital to success – see: Clutterbuck, The Long, Long War (London, 1966).  One key to relatively low levels of corruption is a living wage, paid on time.

Maybe, next, we can help the Germans with police training which according to some observers/commentators is going very badly indeed.  See: http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/49908/post-507734.html#msg507734  Maybe we can help the Germans withdraw with honour à la M. Dion’s wish for Canada and, thereby, preserve the fiction of NATO.

 

[GAP]

One key to relatively low levels of corruption is a living wage, paid on time.

The other side of that problem is getting the money from the police officer/soldier to his home without him wandering off for literally weeks at a time to get it there. There was an article about one of the countries setting up a money exchange within the local villages to solve that problem, but I can't seem to find it right now.

 

[Mortar guy]

This is very true. Desertion rates in the ANA/ANP were high when I was there as there was no functioning banking system in most of Afghanistan which meant soldiers and police hod no reliable way of getting money to their families. Basically, troops would go AWOL to bring home the bacon (or halal alternative) and would then return to their units sometime later (most of the time).

Allocating more money for the ANP is a good start but it may not achieve the results desired. The way police are paid there is absolutely insane and a recipe for corruption. Funds for payroll are paid from an international trust fund, to the Ministry of the Interior, to the provincial chiefs of police, to the district chiefs of police who are then responsible for paying the police officers in their district. In Kabul we saw that payments were being made from the trust fund but that little or no money actually made it to the cops in the field. The fact that there is minimal international oversight on where the money goes once it leaves the trust fund is a big part of the problem. The problem was so bad that BGen Fraser came to Kabul while I was there to try to find out why the ANP in Kandahar province hadn't been paid in 3 months.

Until a proper payroll and financial system is set up in the Ministry of the Interior, throwing more money at the problem will not necessarily make things better. I am sure there is lots of drooling at the MoI and among the police chiefs at this extra lump of cash.

MG

 

[GAP]

Rocket fire delays MacKay's flight to Pakistan
Updated Mon. Jan. 8 2007 2:07 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link
Maj.-Gen. (ret'd) Lew MacKenzie Video Interview  
Murray Oliver has details in Kandahar 3:49

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay attempted to highlight reconstruction efforts on the final day of his trip to Afghanistan but the focus turned back to security after rockets were fired at the base.

MacKay's flight to Pakistan was delayed 15 minutes after the two rockets were fired. No injuries were reported.

On Monday, MacKay spent time with the Provincial Reconstruction Team and then announced $10 million in funding for Afghan police officers.

"Canada's new government believes that providing a national civilian police force with an adequate and regular salary is critical to helping restore security and the rule of law in Afghanistan," MacKay said in a press release Monday. "Our contribution will help further this objective, resulting in a more professional police force to better serve the people of Afghanistan."

MacKay also presented the provincial chief of police with approximately 1,500 police jackets and 2,500 pairs of winter gloves.

"The equipment that we are providing today will similarly enable the Afghan National Police to more effectively perform their duties."

Canada will make its contribution through the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA). LOTFA has helped institute a payroll system that, for the first time, allows officers to regularly receive their salaries directly from banks instead of through unreliable and irregular payments.

MacKay's focus on reconstruction was also interrupted by calls for more security forces.

"Our biggest problem is security,'' said Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, who narrowly escaped a suicide bombing attempt on his life just months ago.


"All people are suffering from this type of activity from suicide bombers, from landmines and from other things. But I'm thinking first for (the safety) of civilians."


In Pakistan, MacKay will hold talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on border security and cracking down on Taliban living and training in the country.

"I'm not going to pre-empt what we will discuss in Islamabad, but certainly the issue of the border is one that has been what I would describe as the weak underbelly of our ability to bring stability to the south,'' said MacKay.


"The control of movement across the border is something that has to be brought to heel.''

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Lewis MacKenzie told Canada AM on Monday that MacKay's trip to Pakistan is more important than his time in Afghanistan.

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