More money alone does not help to foster the stability of the law

Sharp criticism was voiced on Friday by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on the German and European police training in Afghanistan. "More money alone and new training programmes do not help to foster the stability of the law”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. Afghanistan’s police is seen by the people neither as reliable nor as law-abiding, but they are seen as responsible for torture, perversion of justice and corruption. "Germany as one of the most important promoters of police training must make sure that Afghan policemen are brought to justice for breaches of the law”, said Delius. Afghanistan’s police urgently needs properly functioning supervision which enables citizens to instigate proceedings against policemen for breaches of the law.

Up to now it has been only the fearless action of Afghan journalists which has resulted in policemen being prosecuted. In the autumn of 2008 the chief of police of the province of Sar-e-Pul was dismissed and four policemen were arrested following the report of the journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi that they had covered up the rape of a 12-year old girl by the militiamen of a warlord. The police-chief had even threatened the father of the girl that he would prevent the punishment of the rapers.

The Afghan police torture and mishandle children and young people in custody according to a report published in October 2008 by the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF. Only 21 percent of the 247 minors interviewed said in the study that they had not been mishandled in custody or during police questioning.

"The concept of police training needs urgent improvement to give effective protection against violations of human rights”, said Delius. The foreign donor countries cannot just remain inactive in face of the fact that inside the Afghan government and the administration corruption and the influence of the warlords are stronger than the political will to build up a constitutional state.

The German government has this week provided three million euros for the setting up and equipping of new police offices, for the financing of pensions for surviving dependants and the management of the payment of salaries. In October 2008 Berlin contributed 10 million euros for the payment of salaries of Afghan policemen. In 2002 Germany declared its preparedness to take primary responsibility for the training of the Afghan police.