The Afghanistan National Police (ANP)

[Pol-Mil FSO]

General Raziq remains the Warlord of Spin Boldak. His right hand man was killed in an 07 Jan 2011 suicide bombing in a Spin Boldak bath house that also killed 16 civilians. Per the request of the Governor of Kandahar, Raziq's men have been participating in clearing operations in the Arghandab District (outside of the ABP's normal AO) and also possibly Zhari District. (I've seen one media report mentioning the latter but have not been able to confirm it.)

[davidbfpo]

Originally posted in the daily news round-up and worth adding here:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/top-cop-purge/

[Jedburgh]

International Peacekeeping, Feb 11: Paramilitarization and Security Sector Reform: The Afghan National Police

An accelerating trend to establish paramilitarized security forces has been occurring in peace operations to help fill security gaps. But the practice is problematic from a security sector reform (SSR) point of view, because SSR aims at distinguishing between the military and the police and at promoting civilian policing. This article shows that while the SSR concept leaves room for paramilitarization, it demands much caution. The paramilitarization of regular police forces is incompatible with even a flexible interpretation of SSR principles. The US-driven paramilitarization of the Afghan National Police (ANP), reflecting a search for quick fixes, is a dramatic case in point.

[davidbfpo]

CIMIC has published an open source based review of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), alas it is too large to upload and is behind a registration "wall". Anyone who is interested please PM with an email address or register on CIMIC: https://www.cimicweb.org

The actual title is 'Village Defence: Understanding the Afghan Local Police (ALP)' and has links to sources.

[jcustis]

David, was there an executive summary to the review that could be summarized here? I imagine that it probably blows some sunshine in some regards and has sire warnings in others, like most of them do, but I am curious nonetheless.

[davidbfpo]

Jon,

The CIMIC report's conclusion hopefully answers your quest:

The ALP is the latest attempt to establish a local defence force to help foster security throughout Afghanistan. The force is designed with particular recruitment and vetting procedures that are intended to keep local strongmen and former insurgents from infiltrating the ALP. However, the implementation of these procedures in rural village environments throughout Afghanistan has proven and will continue to prove difficult. Deploying this arbakai-based force throughout Afghanistan is a challenge. A long-standing tradition of arbakai exists only in certain parts of the country, and attempting to appeal to local population groups by establishing militias under the guise of a traditional structure is problematic. To date, some, though not all, communities have met local police efforts with distrust and scepticism, potentially exacerbating the pre-existing divide between the state and the citizenry in parts of the country. However, there are signs that this incarnation of a local police force is having some success in combating insurgents ultimately providing improved security for rural communities. Despite these successes, descriptions of misconduct by local defence initiatives are common. Navigating the blurry line between legitimate community safe-keepers and rogue militias will prove a major challenge and priority for the ALP and its overseers in the Afghan MoI and international community.

My summary: an idea that might work well and is beset with difficulties.

[120mm]

Arbakai/ALP I think is one of the least understood and most abused concept by pundits.

The base of the problem is the insane concept of a National Police force. There is no good example of a functioning national police force in the world, that is not involved in enforcing tyranny. None. The centralized control of the ANP means that they are largely irrelevant to localities. It takes the Minister of Justice to approve filling a truck with fuel, and if he is on vacation his Deputy cannot sign the paperwork, the district ANP just sit and do nothing for lack of fuel.

The only effective police forces NEED to be locally generated and responsible to their localities.

Currently, none of the ALP are being paid, because the good folks in GIRoA are apparently stealing all their pay and sending it out of the country. In addition, the Afghans do not understand the program, and/or are using it to their own ends, because the US and ISAF lacks the will to actually enforce conditions on the money we give the the criminal filth that runs Afghanistan

Arbakai pretty much singlehandedly pushed Taliban out of those districts in the north of Afghanistan, and because they are not Pashtun butt-buddies of Karzai and his fellow criminals who run GIRoA, those districts are being allocated either little or no ALP. This is after those Arbakai have been by and large promised positions AS ALP. One of the selling points of ALP from the beginning was to bring a certain amount of those Arbakai under government control and forcing them to answer to the government. Now you have lots of armed men who haven't been paid for 9 months wandering the countryside, getting money through usher, which is basically demanding money from people they meet. While I'm on the concept of usher, who in hell is supposed to pay for security? The population, which is fundamentally communistic and socialist in viewpoint, seems to think they don't have to pay for anything and the government/foreigners will magically provide for security, jobs and all sorts of things. Why NOT force the people to pay for their own damned security? The Taliban taxes them in the same fashion, so it is basically a wash for the populace.

Problem is, Karzai IS the government, and there is no real democracy. As long as Karzai appoints his fellow criminals to provincial, district and city positions, there is no real hope for security. Real security involves local people determining who the mayor of their city, district and province are, and making them answerable to maintaining security.

This means that so-called "warlords" are going to dominate localities. And power will be taken from the overcentralized nightmare of criminals that include and surround Karzai. The question I ask then, is "So what?" There is no doubt in my own mind that local criminals will do a much, much better job of running localities than centralized criminals in Kabul. Afghanistan NEEDs warlords right now, on the local level. They sure as hell do not have a central government to speak of. I also think that building local governments, with the acquiescence of local power brokers will minimize the probability of the upcoming Civil War that noone wants to talk about.

Funny thing about so-called "warlords". If they are Pashtuns in the south, they are "tribal leaders". If they are Tajik or Uzbek in the north, they are "warlords." I for one am getting sick and tired of the Pashtun plurality (NOT a majority, and if there ever were to be a census, I would bet they are actually a TRUE minority) being coddled and kowtowed to. Currently, the Pashtun plurality is living in the past and have wrapped themselves with an undeserved mantle of entitlement and really not contributing anything to Afghanistan.

Time to divide this critter into it's constituent parts, and if they can make Federalism work at a later date, fine. Also time to quit funnelling money to the central government, imo.