Future unclear for widely-praised Afghan militias

[unhappycamper]

First Lt. Scott Yang talks to a member of the Afghan Provincial Protection Force in Wardak province.


Future unclear for widely-praised Afghan militias
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, March 13, 2010

NERKH DISTRICT, Afghanistan — From village shopkeepers to district elders to U.S. Army company commanders, nearly everyone agrees: The shabbily dressed, occasionally uniformed men with Kalashnikovs manning checkpoints throughout Wardak province’s populated mountain valleys aren’t just part of the solution to improved security in this perilous corner of Afghanistan — they are the key to stability.

But despite the praise lavished on the year-old Afghan Provincial Protection Force program, which arms local militias and encourages them to defend their villages, the future of the effort is in limbo.

Known by their old acronym, “AP3,” the militias are made up of local villagers who are given automatic weapons and some training and are paid to protect their communities. With roughly 1,200 members, the militias make up a significant fighting force in a province with a little over 500,000 residents.

Compared with the often thieving, inept Afghan National Police, and the Afghan National Army, whose soldiers are rarely from the areas where they are stationed, the local militias seem to have drawn much more trust from regular Afghans.

“Before, when there was no AP3, there was no security,” said Abdul Khalil, a Nerkh district councilor.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=68654

[bigtree]

1. only unclear

. . . for those who refuse to learn from history.