Security: unclassified – level 3
AFGHANISTAN NEWS BULLETIN
Afghanistan News 05/16/2011 – Bulletin # 2714
Compiled by the Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada
www.afghanemb-canada.net
email:[email protected]
In This Bulletin:
Afghan Air Force to Prepare for Equipment
Afghan, NATO forces make progress, challenges remain
Al Qaeda "cadres" still help Afghan Taliban: U.S.
Gates: 'Premature' to eye faster Afghan pullout
Afghanistan Bears Biggest Threats from Pakistani Borders: US Gen
John Kerry warns Pakistan over Bin Laden
Afghanistan May Be Open to New Path, Kerry Says
US, Pakistan try to salvage ties
Ex-Afghan spy chief: I knew where bin Laden was
Transition to Afghan control is bumpy
Russian veteran warns of "unsolvable" Afghan
[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy
of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and
commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational
purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]
Afghan Air Force to Prepare for Equipment
There are preparations to provide Afghan air force with new equipment and
presently the transportation sections of the forces have become active, Afghan
Defence Ministry said on Monday.
Defence Ministry Spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi told a press conference that as the
security transition process begins, Afghan air forces will also begin to operate in the
country.
The main challenges of Afghan national army are poor equipment and lack of
professional cadres, Gen. Azimi said.
Officials in Afghan Defence Ministry said efforts are already underway to increase
the capacity of the national army, which has more than 170,000 now.
"Currently we don't have fighter jets, proper air defence systems inlcuding
reconnaissance planes," Gen. Azimi said. "The President has also emphasised that
Afghan air force should soon stand on its feet."
He said Afghan security forces have also started using some equipment being used
by Nato forces in counterterrorism combat.
"Our potential and heavy firepower cannot yet overcome domestic and external
challenges and we do not even have armoured forces. The discussions are in
progress to resolve the challenges," he said.
Recently President Hamid Karzai has ordered Afghan Defence Minister to prepare a
report on planes and choppers of the national army to better identify problems in
the air force.
Afghan security forces are expected to undertake security burden in seven
provinces in July this year as part of the first phase of security transition.
Afghan, NATO forces make progress, challenges remain
KABUL, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan army and NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) have made progress in fighting insurgents but challenges
remain, Lt. General David M. Rodriquez, Commander of ISAF Joint Command (IJC),
said on Monday.
"Together Afghan and coalition forces have degraded many of the insurgents
support bases and weakened the enemies effectiveness," Rodriquez told a joint
press conference here in ISAF fortified headquarters.
Nevertheless, he noted that Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan would increase
this summer.
"I'm confident that we have the right approach. Where we partner together and
focus our efforts, we are seeing progress, and we are setting the conditions for the
Afghan people to build a better future for themselves," said Rodriquez who also
serves as Deputy Commander of United States Forces-Afghanistan.
Major General Michael G. Krause, Deputy Chief of Staff at IJC, said that the violence in
Afghanistan is much more isolated than it was in previous years.
"We have had success cutting off the insurgents form their support bases. Roughly
70 percent of the violence in the country is now happening in four of the 34
provinces."
He named the four provinces as Kandahar and Helmand, the Taliban heartland in
southern Afghanistan, and Kunar and Khost in eastern part of the country.
Presently over 140,000 foreign troops with nearly 100,000 of them Americans are
deployed in Afghanistan.
Taliban announced on April 30 to start spring offensive against Afghan and NATOled international forces.
Al Qaeda "cadres" still help Afghan Taliban: U.S.
Reuters, May 16, 2011- Fewer than 100 al Qaeda members remain inside
Afghanistan, but they form a core group providing the Afghan Taliban with
resources and technical battlefield skills, the second most senior U.S. commander in
the country said Monday.
U.S. Lieutenant General David Rodriguez also said it was too early to say if the death
of Osama bin Laden had had an impact on the Taliban or would affect a gradual U.S.
troop drawdown due to begin in July.
"We still think that there are just less than a hundred al Qaeda operatives in
Afghanistan," Rodriguez, commander of day-to-day operations for the 150,000strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul.
"But what they do is a cadre-type organization that helps out to bring both
resources as well as technical skills to the rest of the Taliban fighting here," he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior Afghan officials have said the killing of
bin Laden in a U.S. raid in neighboring Pakistan earlier this month showed the war
against terrorism was outside Afghanistan and "not in Afghan villages."
Analysts have also questioned the extent of the relationship between al Qaeda and
Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan, saying ties were already strained before the
September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States planned by bin Laden.
The Taliban, who once sheltered bin Laden, were also slow to react to his death,
unlike other Islamist groups around the world who called for revenge, a sign many
analysts said was an attempt to distance themselves from al Qaeda.
Rodriguez said al Qaeda worked with different insurgent groups in Afghanistan on
"multiple levels" to increase their effectiveness, but it was still too early to tell
whether bin Laden's death would affect the Taliban.
"There's been a bunch of chatter here and there but no effects that we can see at this
point. I think it's too early to see that but we're continuing to watch that carefully
over time," he said.
"NO DECISION" ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said the killing of bin Laden could be a
"game changer" in the Afghan war and U.S. lawmakers have called for a speedier
withdrawal of U.S. troops after the al Qaeda's leader's death.
A gradual handover of security responsibilities to the Afghan army and police is due
to start this summer, and be completed by the end of 2014 when the last foreign
troops leave.
Violence is at the highest levels since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban
government, despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops in the country and an
aggressive campaign to push insurgents out of strongholds like southern Kandahar.
A homemade bomb killed four soldiers of the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan Monday, ISAF said, but gave no
further details.
Washington has said it will start withdrawing its roughly 100,000 troops from
Afghanistan in July and aims to have pulled them all out by end 2014.
Rodriguez said bin Laden's death had not changed the NATO-led mission in
Afghanistan and no decision had been made yet regarding the scope of the troop
drawdown.
"The al Qaeda movement is not just based on one individual. We're just going to
have to see ... how much impact that will have on the strength on al Qaeda and its
associated movements, but that's yet to be seen," he said.
Asked if bin Laden's death should have an effect on the speed of the U.S. troop
withdrawal, Rodriguez said "We are going to see how it goes but there has been no
decision on that yet."
Gates: 'Premature' to eye faster Afghan pullout
AFP, 16/05/2011-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said accelerating troop
withdrawals from Afghanistan because of Osama bin Laden's death would be
"premature."
The US covert raid that killed Al-Qaeda's chief has fueled calls to scale back the
massive US presence in Afghanistan, just as President Barack Obama reviews plans
to begin pulling out some of the 100,000 troops there in July.
Gates, in an interview broadcast on the CBS news show "60 Minutes," said it's too
early to consider speeding the pace of withdrawal.
"I think it's premature," he said. "I think we just don't know. It's only been a week.
And people are already drawing historical conclusions. I think that's a little quick."
Skeptics have seized on bin Laden's demise to argue that there is no reason to keep
so many troops in Afghanistan in a war originally launched after the September 11
attacks to prevent Al-Qaeda from using the country as a sanctuary.
They point to military estimates that only about 200 Al-Qaeda operatives are left in
the country, while a NATO-led force has swelled to more than 140,000.
Gates, who is retiring June 30 after four and a half years on the job, said bin Laden's
death could be a "game changer" in the war in Afghanistan.
Gates, the only Pentagon chief to serve under presidents from both major political
parties, said "we could be in a position by the end of this year, where we have
turned the corner in Afghanistan."
The 67-year-old has worked for the US government for 30 years, including a stint as
director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Afghanistan Bears Biggest Threats from Pakistani Borders: US Gen
Tolo news, May 16, 2011-Afghanistan has suffered the biggest security threats from
Pakistani borders, a top US general said on Monday.
Lt Gen. David Rodriguez the second in command of foreign troops and commander
of Isaf Joint Command said we have plans to neutralise Pakistani cross-border
challenges.
We absolutely focus our energy on the biggest threats coming from Pakistani crossborder," said Commander of Isaf Joint Command Lt Gen David Rodriguez. "We have
a lot of operation plan, both for interdicting people along the border as well as
through the depth of the zone from Kabul all the way up to Khost.
At a joint press conference in Kabul Coalition's Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans Maj.
Gen. Michael Krause and Lt Gen. Rodriguez said there are still al-Qaeda operatives in
Afghanistan who provide financial and technical aid to the Taliban.
Isaf generals highlighted that insurgents no longer have the momentum and the
potential to fight troops.
"The insurgency does continue to attack, but has not been able to arrest our
momentum today. We intend to continue to strengthen the Afghan hold on these
areas we have secured and continue to expand," Maj. Gen. Michael Krause, the
coalition's deputy chief of staff for plans, told reporters.
Isaf generals said the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan would affect their
mission and they would remain in Afghanistan until necessary.
John Kerry warns Pakistan over Bin Laden
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) 16 May 2011 - A visiting senior United States senator warned
Pakistanis on Monday that members of Congress were asking "tough questions"
about economic aid to Islamabad after Osama bin Laden was killed on Pakistani soil.
Senator John Kerry told a news conference he had not come to Islamabad to
apologize for the May 2 secret U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden and infuriated
the Pakistani military.
But the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a Democrat close to
President Barack Obama, said U.S.-Pakistani ties were too important to be unraveled
by the incident.
In a veiled warning to the Pakistani security establishment, made up of the powerful
military and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, he said: "The road ahead
will not be defined by words. It will be defined by actions."
"I emphasized to our Pakistani friends -- and they are friends -- that many in
Congress are raising tough questions about our ongoing economic assistance to the
government of Pakistan because of the events as they unfolded, and because of the
presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan," he said.
Washington's fragile ties with ally Islamabad took a beating after U.S. special forces
flew in from Afghanistan on a secret operation and killed bin Laden on May 2, nearly
10 years after he orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Pakistani intelligence officials said on Monday that 12 militants were killed and four
wounded in separate missile attacks by U.S. pilotless aircraft in Pakistan's North
Waziristan, region seen as a global hub for militants.
Such drone operations have fueled anti-American sentiment in Pakistan because
they are seen as a violation of its sovereignty.
An intelligence official said one of the dead militants, an Arab, was the son of an al
Qaeda operative identified as Abu Kashif. There was no way to verify the death toll.
Militants often dispute official accounts of drone attacks.
HALF PAKISTANIS "SAD" OVER BIN LADEN DEATH
Kerry told his hosts it was necessary to keep them in the dark before the bin Laden
raid to ensure its success, and asked Pakistanis to "see this in its historical, critical
light."
No one in the Pakistani government or military was notified beforehand, infuriating
and humiliating the army and government.
Kerry said few people in the White House had prior knowledge of the operation, and
even General David Petraeus, commander of the war in Afghanistan, was informed
only a few days in advance.
About half of Pakistanis were "sad" about the killing of bin Laden, a survey
conducted by Gallup Pakistan said, findings likely to frustrate the United States
which wants the country to crack down harder on militants.
Kerry said there was "no evidence the high leadership of this country, whether
civilian or military had any knowledge" of bin Laden's presence, but added that
some members of Congress were not confident that ties could be repaired.
The senator made clear that any Pakistani inquiry into how bin Laden managed to
evade notice by the ISI or the military for years would be fact-checked against
intelligence gathered by Navy SEALs at his compound.
"We have a treasure trove of information that has been made available," he said.
Pakistan has rarely made the results of its fact-finding efforts public or acted on
them.
Kerry said a series of steps would be taken rebuild trust between the two countries.
One would be the return to the United States of the tail section of a helicopter
destroyed in the raid. Its unusual design suggests a previously unknown make of
helicopter that could have stealth capabilities.
Two senior administration officials would come to Pakistan later this week to
prepare for a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he added.
The Pakistani prime minister's office said the U.S. Special Representative for
Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, and the Deputy Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, Mark Morrel, would visit Pakistan.
Bin Laden's discovery in the comfortable garrison town of Abbottabad, only 50 km
(30 miles) from the capital, has deeply embarrassed the military and spy agency,
reviving suspicion that Pakistan knew where he was and has been playing a double
game.
Pakistan has rejected that as absurd, and its parliament has condemned the U.S. raid
as a violation of its sovereignty and called for a review of ties.
Compounding Pakistan's reputation as an unstable Muslim country infested with
militants, gunmen on motorcycles shot dead a Saudi diplomat in the city of Karachi
as he drove to work.
Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban militants, who have vowed to strike back for the
killing of Saudi-born bin Laden, claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan May Be Open to New Path, Kerry Says
New York Times, By ALISSA J. RUBIN, May 15, 2011-Osama bin Laden's death will
allow "a new phase" in the United States' relationship with Afghanistan, one that
could include reductions in troops and spending, Senator John Kerry said while
visiting here on Sunday.
That message, which has been bandied about in Congress and on television talk
shows in the wake of Bin Laden's killing in Pakistan two weeks ago, appears to be
more of an inevitability as policy makers look closely at the amount being spent in
Afghanistan and ask where security threats are most severe.
As his two-day visit in Afghanistan came to a close, a central point made by Senator
Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, was that events in Pakistan and its relationship with the United States
will have the biggest impact on security here.
"I have consistently said every year that Pakistan may do more to determine the
outcome of what happens in Afghanistan" than anything else, he said.
He spoke at a news conference in Kabul before heading to Islamabad, the Pakistani
capital, where he is expected to have blunt conversations with military and civilian
leaders.
Mr. Kerry indicated that during briefings in Khost Province, where the United States
keeps watch on Pakistani tribal areas, he had been told that Pakistan remained
involved in helping to send insurgents into Afghanistan.
"Yes, there are insurgents coming across the border. Yes, they are operating out of
North Waziristan and other areas of the sanctuaries. Yes, there is some evidence of
Pakistan government knowledge of some of these activities in ways that are very
disturbing," he said. "That will be, without any question, one of the subjects of
conversation. It will not be the first time this has been raised."
As far as Afghanistan goes, he said, "We're at a critical moment where we may be
able to transition at a greater speed."
Mr. Kerry did not specifically mention civilian casualties. But when he spoke about
"reducing the footprint," he seemed to indirectly allude to civilian casualties and the
house searches and night raids that Afghans hate.
After years of Western military and civilian leaders arguing that the deaths and
raids, while regrettable, were a byproduct of NATO's fight against terrorism, Mr.
Kerry said that President Hamid Karzai's complaints about them were "correct."
One benefit of reducing the number of troops, he implied, would be to also reduce
such searches and civilian casualties.
What is being talked about, he said, is a "a smart, thoughtful way to rapidly, as
rapidly as possible, while maintaining progress, shift responsibilities to Afghans," he
said.
Underpinning that judgment, he said, were conversations with President Karzai;
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior commander in Afghanistan; Karl W. Eikenberry,
the American ambassador in Kabul; and other Afghan political figures, who all said
that security had improved, which opens the way for a reduction in the NATO
presence.
Senator Kerry acknowledged that improvements were needed in governance and in
fighting corruption, but he sounded willing to be satisfied with the situation as it
stands. "To the credit of the Afghans, they have made a series of choices and
decisions and progress that is beginning to provide a road, even notwithstanding
the level of cooperation of Pakistan," he said.
Some lawmakers in Congress are demanding that aid to Pakistan be cut off or
sharply reduced, but Mr. Kerry said such actions could have a profound effect on the
extent to which Pakistan encouraged the largely Pashtun Taliban insurgency in
Afghanistan.
"It's important to try to not allow the passions of the moment to cloud over the
larger goal that is in both of our interests," Mr. Kerry said.
US, Pakistan try to salvage ties
ISLAMABAD (AP) 16 may 2011 -- A top U.S. emissary warned Pakistan on Monday
that "actions not words" are needed to tackle militant sanctuaries, as the two
countries tried to salvage their relationship two weeks after the U.S. raid that killed
Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to the national capital.
Sen. John Kerry, the first high-level American official to visit Islamabad since the
May 2 death of the al-Qaida leader, said Pakistan agreed to take several "specific
steps" immediately to improve ties.
But he did not say whether those steps include what the U.S. wants most: action
against the Haqqani network and other Taliban factions sheltering in Pakistan and
killing American troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
Although the United States says it has no evidence that Pakistan's civil or military
leadership knew of bin Laden's whereabouts, the knowledge that the U.S. might find
some evidence in the documents seized in the terror leader's compound has given it
new leverage over Islamabad.
Pakistan has long balked at U.S. requests to crack down on Afghan Taliban factions
on its soil. The Taliban and al-Qaida have close ties, and suspicions over Pakistani
complicity in hiding bin Laden have fostered further questions about whether
Pakistan is not only tolerating but perhaps even supporting other militants.
Kerry noted that several members of the U.S. Congress no longer want to authorize
U.S. aid to Pakistan given the suspicions generated by the bin Laden raid.
"Members of Congress are not confident that things can be patched up again," said
Kerry, who chairs the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and is considered a
friend of Pakistan. "That is why actions not words are going to be critical to earning
their votes."
Bin Laden's hideaway in Abbottabad, which also houses Pakistan's version of West
Point, has compounded questions in America's eyes over this country's reliability as
an ally. Pakistanis reacted angrily to the U.S. incursion on their soil.
Kerry's public comments and a later joint statement with Pakistan's army and
intelligence chiefs after a series of meetings indicated willingness on both sides to
stabilize a vital relationship.
Still, there were few immediate tangible signs of progress.
Kerry said Pakistan agreed to hand over the tail of a classified stealth helicopter that
was destroyed by the American commandos when it malfunctioned on the raid on
bin Laden's hideaway. He also said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would
soon announce a trip to the country.
Late Monday, U.S. missiles fired from a drone hit a house and car a region close to
the Afghan border that is home to al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, killing seven
militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The suspected identities of the dead in
North Waziristan were not released.
The U.S. attack came two days after the Pakistani parliament, following a debate
dominated by anger over the bin Laden raid, demanded an end to the missile strikes
as well. The drone strikes are intensely unpopular among Pakistanis but, at least in
the past, have been carried out with the consent of Pakistani authorities. It was
unclear if the latest attack would generate more rancor.
Nominal allies since 2001 when Pakistan severed its links to the Taliban in
Afghanistan and supported the U.S.-led invasion, relations between the two
countries have never been smooth. Many Pakistanis are hostile to the United States
and its presence in Afghanistan.
Pakistan allows the United States to truck much of its war supplies over its soil into
Afghanistan. Its ties with Afghan Taliban factions means it will also be important to
negotiating an end to the war there, as Washington now believes is inevitable.
For its part, Pakistan desperately needs U.S. assistance to keep its economy afloat
and its army equipped against the threat it perceives from rising regional giant
India.
That means neither the U.S. nor Pakistan can afford a complete break in relations
regardless of how tense the relations become.
"We have got to get the job done (in Afghanistan), and we need Pakistan's
cooperation, and they need ours," Kerry told reporters. "And that's where we need
to work on and I think we have made a lot of progress on that."
Mark Morrel, the deputy director of the CIA, and Marc Grossman, the Obama
administration's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, are also expected to visit
Pakistan soon.
The American raid was initially welcomed by Pakistan's president and prime
minister, but the mood changed after a day or so when the army - the real power
center in the country - issued angry statements accusing the United States of
violating its sovereignty.
Monday's joint statement said both sides pledged to work together in any future
actions against "high value targets" in Pakistan, apparently an attempt to placate
Pakistanis angry that the army was not told in advance about the raid on bin Laden's
compound. The statement did not explicitly rule out any more unilateral raids
against al-Qaida and Taliban targets in the country, something that American
officials have also declined to do in recent days.
"My goal in coming here is not to apologize for what I consider to be a triumph
against terrorism of unprecedented consequence," Kerry said. "My goal in coming
here has been to talk about how we manage this important relationship."
Ex-Afghan spy chief: I knew where bin Laden was
AP, May 15, 2011-Afghanistan's former intelligence chief says he knew Osama bin
Laden was hiding in Pakistan four years ago, but Pakistan's leaders rejected his
claims.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Amrullah Saleh says Afghan
intelligence thought bin Laden was in the Pakistani city of Mansehra - about 12
miles away from Abbottabad, where the terrorist leader was eventually found and
killed by U.S. Navy SEALs.
Saleh has become a prominent critic of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's efforts to
start peace talks with the Taliban. He says Pakistan should be recognized by the
United States as "a hostile country."
He told CBS: "They take your money. They do not co-operate. They created the
Taliban. They are number one in nuclear proliferation."
Transition to Afghan control is bumpy
The Globe and Mail, By SUSAN SACHS, Sunday, May. 15, 2011-The international
training operation in Afghanistan will devote extra resources this year to creating a
police force that is more literate and aware of human rights, although critics say the
NATO effort is still short-changing civilian policing in its massive effort to build an
Afghan fighting force that can be handed control of the country.
U.S. Lieutenant-General William Caldwell IV, commander of the training operation,
said in an interview that he recognizes the police, reviled by many Afghans as
corrupt and ill-trained, need more direct mentoring and more prolonged law
enforcement training.
But the presence of trained police and soldiers is only one component of making the
transition to Afghan control work in the short term, Gen. Caldwell added. It requires
effective governance, a functioning police system and security leadership, among
other things.
Whether those requirements are being met will be answered only as the handover
proceeds, Gen. Caldwell said, with the first three provinces and four cities set to
officially transfer to Afghan security control this summer. The NATO training
mission (NTM-A), along with the overall military foreign command, is already
pouring in extra police, troops and supplies to those areas to fill requests from
Afghan officials.
Police training has long been a sore point between the U.S.-led NATO mission and
the European Union, human-rights groups and many in the small contingent of
Canadian and other foreign police officers working in Afghanistan.
The EU, through its own police training mission, operated some of the few projects
focused on developing such civilian policing skills as patrolling neighbourhoods,
crime investigation and sensitivity to women. Canada's community policing project
in Kandahar, now being disbanded as its civilian and military personnel are being
withdrawn beginning next month, was another.
These projects are dwarfed by the overall NATO training mission, which costs $6billion a year and has concentrated on putting as many Afghans in uniform as
possible, either as soldiers or paramilitary police officers, so that foreign troops can
withdraw by the end of 2014.
In an interview at Camp Eggers, the heavily fortified headquarters of NTM-A, Gen.
Caldwell said he recently set up 159 two-man teams to work side-by-side with
Afghan police in the field - much as foreign soldiers team up as advisers with Afghan
National Army units.
The newly deployed teams, run out of NATO regional commands, will "be the ones
to teach and coach and advise the police," he said. "And it's really starting to have an
impact out there for us, as they get a better handle on what's really going on."
The transition plan, which aims to hand over lead responsibility for security to
Afghans in less than four years, also hinges on convincing Afghans that their
government is credible. The way people see their police - as predatory, according to
some polls here - is a key element.
"There are still many areas where the popularity of the police is not much better
than the popularity of the insurgents," said Rebecca Barber, a researcher with the
British charity Oxfam, which has called on NATO to focus more on accountability in
the Afghan security forces.
In the rush to build up the Afghan forces, the original eight-week course of basic
training for the Afghan National Police was reduced to six weeks in the last 18
months since NTM-A was set up to consolidate and standardize training.
The essence of the training is to give recruits the equivalent of Grade 1 literacy skills
and teach them to defend themselves and operate checkpoints. In many parts of the
country, the police are still the first and sometimes only line of defence against
insurgent attacks.
The use of professional police officers to train Afghans, once one of Canada's core
projects, has given way in the larger NATO mission to a reliance on military officers
and U.S. contractors with little police experience.
Even the newly assigned mentoring teams created by Gen. Caldwell are staffed by
U.S. contractors, according to his aides.
The capacity of the Afghan police and army to take the lead in providing security is
weak, and unlikely to develop in the timetable set by NATO for pulling out most
forces, according to Tonita Murray, a former director-general of the Canadian Police
College who has worked as an adviser to the Afghan Interior Ministry for six years.
One reason is that NATO has struggled to get enough international trainers.
Another, she said, is that the personnel doing the training are often not experienced
trainers themselves, and come mostly from the military, not the police.
Once trained as a paramilitary force, Ms. Murray said, Afghan police will have the
same difficulties that soldiers everywhere would have in converting themselves into
civilian upholders of the peace.
"You cannot change a warrior fighting culture into a community law-and-order
helping culture just like that," she added. "Civilian police are the ones who maintain
the rule of law. Military or counterinsurgency fighters do not do that and cannot do
that. They don't have the organizational culture training."
A critical report on Afghan police training, published by the British House of Lords
three months ago, made a similar point - that community policing is being neglected.
"From our evidence, it is apparent that great stress is laid by the NATO-led coalition
on the number of police, rather than quality (as is also true of army training)," the
parliamentary report said.
Gen. Caldwell said NATO training of Afghan security forces has made enormous
strides in the past year and half.
Going by the numbers, NTM-A is well on its way to reaching the goal of a 305,600strong combined army and police force by the end of November.
It is turning out 6,000 newly minted soldiers and 4,000 police officers a month. It
runs basic literacy classes, now attended by nearly 80,000 Afghans in uniform. It
fields 6,200 trainers, including 2,000 private military contractors, who come from
32 different countries.
Gen. Caldwell said he is leveraging those trainers by setting up joint policedevelopment boards that include the European Union's trainers. They have been
asked to run leadership training sessions for mid-level working Afghan police.
"Those are 100-per-cent civilian police professionals," he said, "with NTM-A doing
the logistics [of] moving them around.
Higher literacy rates among the police - now at 25 per cent of the force compared to
14 per cent in late 2009 - will also make it more practical to teach Afghan police the
fundamentals of law enforcement. "This will allow us to move people around to do
rule of law programs [with the police], which we couldn't do before," Gen. Caldwell
said.
CANADA'S PLEDGE: 950 MILITARY AND POLICE OFFICERS
Canada has pledged up to 950 military and police officers to the training mission,
including the 150 Canadians now working as press officers, as staff at the NATO
military command and at NTM-A.
Another 200 will work as administrative support staff to the trainers, according to
Glen Parent, an aide to Colonel Peter Dawe, who recently arrived in Kabul to
command the Canadian training mission. Most of the other Canadian military
trainers, he said, will teach Afghan trainers who are already responsible for much of
the basic training in Kabul and work at the testing centre where Afghan battalions
are put together before deployment.
The Canadian police training mission is less clear.
Superintendent Konrad Shourie, a Toronto-based RCMP officer who is ending a
nine-month stint as a police adviser to Lieutenant-General William Caldwell this
month, said the 14 or so police trainers now in Kandahar will be transferred to
Kabul.
They will be part of a contingent of about 50 civilian police officers from around the
world who will be in place in early June. Many of them, he said, will be assigned as
advisers in the Afghan Interior Ministry.
Their job, said Supt. Shourie, "is to help shift and change the lexicon and the mindset
within the ANP towards a civilian police identity ... as they move through from
insurgency fight on to civilian policing organization."
The civilian police officers, though, will represent just over 1 per cent of the entire
NTM-A training contingent.
Over all, Canada will have its biggest footprint in Afghanistan in the training mission,
once combat troops leave Kandahar this summer. The United States is footing most
of the bill for the Afghan forces, but Canada would be the second-largest contributor
of personnel to the NTM-A.
Gen. Caldwell's top deputies are also Canadian. Major-General Stuart Beare has
headed army training for nearly a year. This week, acting Major-General Michael
Day, who headed Canadian Special Forces Command, became the deputy
commander of police training.
Russian veteran warns of "unsolvable" Afghan
RUZA, Russia (Reuters) 16 May 2011- Violence will erupt in Afghanistan once
NATO-led forces complete their planned pullout, repeating the aftermath following
the Soviet exit, the head of Russia's Union of Afghan Veterans said in an interview.
Moscow is still haunted by its own disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan,
where some 15,000 Soviet soldiers died fighting mujahideen insurgents before
pulling out in 1989.
Frants Klintsevich, also a deputy in the Russian parliament, said he understands the
desire to try to tame Afghanistan, but that "the problem of radical Islam will not be
solved there, its violence cannot be solved. It is simply unsolvable."
He spoke to Reuters at an annual veterans' convention just outside of Moscow,
where he conducted a wreath-laying ceremony with generals in full military regalia,
many left blinded or crippled. Russian veterans are so tightly tied to the catastrophic
conflict, they refer to themselves as "Afghans."
An increasingly unpopular war now in its tenth year, violence in Afghanistan has
intensified. In 2010 all sides took record casualties, making it the worst year since
U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001.
"As soon as the Americans and Europeans leave, the Taliban will crack down on
everything," said Klintsevich, 53, who as a colonel between 1986-88 won praise
from Moscow for quickly learning the Dari language and using it to negotiate with
mujahideen.
INFIGHTING, COLLAPSE
After the dispirited Soviet exit, the Afghan communist government collapsed,
leading to infighting between warlords, a civil war that reduced Kabul to rubble and
paved the way for the Taliban's rise to power in 1996.
With around 100,000 troops, the U.S. has the lion's share of up to 150,000 NATO-led
foreign forces in Afghanistan. In its time, the Soviet Union sent 115,000 troops.
U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to begin gradually bringing U.S. troops
home from July, with NATO eyeing a full handover of security responsibilities to
Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
"They (NATO and the United States) are 100 percent repeating the same mistake we
made by entering into a war in that country," Klintsevich said.
He said he wished the United States had consulted Russia before entering the war
because Russia has more than 200 years' experience of dealing with Afghanistan
and is now vying to boost its clout in the country amid fears of growing Islamism.
"They should have invited Russian specialists, involved Russia, really studied how
they could use Russia. But unfortunately Americans think they know everything," he
said.