“Our police force is too weak”

What has been achieved in five years of building police capacities, and what remains to be done?
The original target was of 70,000 police officers, committed to Afghanistan’s constitution and loyal to the state. So far, we have trained around 48,000 officers accordingly. Given the tough security situation in some parts of the country, that progress is too slow on the whole. The number of officers is still inadeqaute, and that is also true of their weapons, means of communication et cetera. Our security forces are in no position to do much about terrorism.

What tasks are the most pressing?
First, we must not lose sight of our long-term goal of a professional police force which is committed to the constitution. Second, we have to quickly train and arm volunteer recruits, deployable as a paramilitary police force in the south of the country. We need an alternative approach for setting up the police in unsafe regions along the Pakistani border. In the villages, there must be an option of recruiting volunteers, who must, of course, operate under the supervision of the Interior Ministry in defence against terrorists.

For some time, the US administration has been spending money on short training courses of a few weeks, basically teaching police in the use of weapons. Is that what you are thinking of?
That kind of US engagement is a component of the over-arching and long-term concept of developing a well-trained Afghan police force. It is not intended to be an alternative. There are several aspects of building up the police force. The persons trained by the USA can be deployed at short notice in paramilitary settings, but they are no substitute for the professional officers we need for conventional police tasks.

Anthony Cordesman, an American security expert, says that Germany has wasted years by training the wrong type of police. Do you agree?
Such complaints are misdirected. Building the Afghan state is a drawn-out process, and in the long run we need professional police officers who perform according to democratic rules and respect human rights. On the other hand, the US approach is useful for dealing with terrorist threats in the short run. Both approaches complement each other.

The European Union wants to become more involved in police training in line with the German model. The number of instructors in Afghanistan is to be quadrupled to 160. Is this a step in the right direction?
Yes, it is. This responsibility cannot be shouldered by one country alone. Germany simply hasn’t been able to make enough funds available for training police in recent years. It is most welcome that the EU now considers this task a shared responsibility. When I was in Brussels in February, I argued in favour of seeing things this way.

Do you believe the EU pledges will suffice?
Even more needs to be done. Compare Europe’s involvement in Afghanistan with that in Kosovo, in regard to both population size and security threats. Afghanistan was the base for al Qaida’s and the Taliban’s international terrorism. Both organisations still exist beyond our borders. In view of these facts, we need much greater commitment and much more money to get the problems under control.

How serious is corruption within the police, and what can be done about it?
Corruption is omnipresent in Afghanistan, not just in the police, but in other government agencies as well. We need to develop an effective strategy to fight corruption. We must strengthen controls, and at the same time increase the salary of civil servants. How can a police officer doing a very dangerous job be expected to provide for his family on $ 50 or 60 per month? We must implement several measures at the same time.

The debate over training Afghanistan’s police arose last year, when record levels in drug cultivation were reported. What role do security forces play in fighting your country’s drug economy?
That fight is not only a police duty. Our police force is still too weak to take on the drug barons and the terror barons, who, in some cases, cooperate. We need a comprehensive anti-drug strategy for the medium to long term, mobilising all capacities nationally. Of course, that will include a security component. But what do you expect the police to do with only 40 officers available in entire districts, as is the case even in the troubled south of the country? Bear in mind that they are poorly equipped, poorly trained and poorly paid.

How heavily is the police involved in the drugs business?
Unfortunately there are links. Some police officers and low-ranking civil servants are involved in the drug trade, and this fact must be dealt with in any strategy to fight cultivation. However, it would be exaggerated to claim that the entire police was infiltrated by the drug mafia.

Questions by Tillmann Elliesen.