Afghans turn to Taliban in fear of own police

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Afghans_turn_to_Taliban_in_fear_of_own_police.html?siteSect=143&sid=10947547&cKey=1247405851000&ty=ti

July 12, 2009

By Peter Graff

PANKELA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As British troops moved into the village newly freed from Taliban control, they heard one message from the anxious locals: for God's sake do not bring back the Afghan police.

U.S. and British troops have launched a campaign to seize control of Helmand province, about half of which was in Taliban hands, and restore Afghan government institutions.

But as they advance, they are learning uncomfortable facts about their local allies: villagers say the government's police force was so brutal and corrupt that they welcomed the Taliban as liberators.

"The police would stop people driving on motorcycles, beat them and take their money," said Mohammad Gul, an elder in the village of Pankela, which British troops have been securing for the past three days after flying in by helicopter.

[sam sarrha]

1. here is a link>> from a previous post about this.. UN F'n BELIEVABLE.!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6047938&mesg_id=6048017

[spindrifter]

2. The Afghan police have an exceptionally high

rate of illiteracy. Both the Canadian and German governments have had training programsin place to address this. Imagine illiterate police who are unable to write police reports to document incidents.

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/Aussenpolitik/RegionaleSchwerpunkte/AfghanistanZentralasien/AktuelleArtikel/081001-Alphabetisierungskurse-Masar,navCtx=278562.html

amt.de/diplo/en/Aussenpolitik/RegionaleSchwerpunkte/AfghanistanZentralasien/AktuelleArtikel/081001-Alphabetisierungskurse-Masar,navCtx=278562.html

The number of illiterate people on the Afghan police force, as among the general Afghan population, is very high. According to the Afghan Foreign Ministry the rate is approximately 71% nationwide. It is estimated that only about 9,500 police officers can read and write easily, while a further 11,500 possess basic skills. The high rate of illiteracy makes it difficult to improve the standard of professional police work.

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In addition, they suffer from the same corruption that permeates the government--at every point along the line, there is someone who rakes off a bribe. Paid very little, there may be nothing left once one's pay packet arrives--a policeman may end up owing money to the higher-ups. At one point the Canadians insisted on paying them directly.
There is little surprise that these cops steal from the people.