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| NEWS > 01 September 2007 |
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Report says police reform maki
The Oakland Police Department has made significant progress on mandated reforms, but needs to train its officers more about the use of violence, a panel of monitors reported this week.
"The Oakland Police Department has accomplished an extraordinary amount over the past several years,'' it said, "but has not yet fully implemented the (terms of the settlement) as required to ensure consistently effective and respectful policing."
Of particular concern to the monitors was officer training, which the team said is crucial to ensuring the long-term success of policy reforms.
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 Article sourced from
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The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
01 September 2007
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Police 'threat' to frail Afgha
BADLY trained police in Afghanistan are spreading fear on behalf of political masters instead of protecting the community, the International Crisis Group has warned.
The independent group set up to resolve conflict said in a report released yesterday the Afghan police had become a "coercive tool" of the governing elite. It said the exploding narcotics trade was a major corrupting influence and factional networks and drug alliances were competing for positions in the police, particularly lucrative ones that oversaw drug-smuggling routes.
The group, headed by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, said insecurity would worsen and democracy could fail in Afghanistan if the police were not reformed and depoliticised.
The report said that in the early stages of the international intervention in Afghanistan the police force was neglected in favour of building the army.
The group's senior analyst in Afghanistan, Joanna Nathan, said rooting out corruption and ensuring operational autonomy, with proper oversight, was critical to Afghanistan's security.
"Instead of increasing coercive power and force size with poorly trained recruits, the Government and its partners need to focus on increased accountability, ethnic representation and professionalism," the report says.
In Kabul this week, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson reportedly told 12 Dutch MPs that if their country withdrew its major force of troops from Afghanistan, Australia would have to consider pulling its own soldiers out.
The Dutch Government has faced considerable public concern about its involvement in Afghanistan and the issue has been voted on several times by the Dutch Parliament.
The 970 Australian troops involved in reconstruction work rely on the Dutch for air support and some protection.
The report says Afghanistan's citizens often view the police more as a source of fear than security.
The US decision to give a leading role in its police programs to its Defence Department had helped blur the distinction between the military and the police.
"It is counter-productive to treat police as an auxiliary fighting unit battling the insurgency as has been happening with increasing frequency in the troubled south," it says.
"Afghanistan, like any other democracy, requires police service more than police force."
President Hamid Karzai's Government lacked the will to end political interference in appointments and operations.
The report says new systems and structures have given the police at least "a shell of professionalism", but a lot more had to be done.
The creation of an auxiliary police force had blurred distinctions between the agencies and put having police ¡ª any police ¡ª on the ground over building up professionalism.
A trusted police force would help nearly everything that had to be achieved in Afghanistan, from security through to gender and minority rights to building investor confidence and development goals, the report says.
¡ö The newly freed South Korean hostages were expected to fly out of Kabul yesterday following a deal critics fear could spur more abductions.
Taliban insurgents freed the remaining seven South Korean Christian volunteers late on Thursday. They are part of a group of 23 kidnapped in mid-July.
The Taliban agreed to release the remaining hostages after Seoul agreed to pull all its nationals out of the country.
Some Afghan officials say South Korea also agreed to pay a ransom during negotiations with the Taliban, which one foreign diplomat said started out as a demand for $20 million. Critics say this set a dangerous precedent.
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