Photo Gallery The Challenges of Training Police in Afghanistan
Afghan police instructor Tarek (far right), conducts a training exercise in Mazar-e-Sharif. As the withdrawal of Western troops approaches, such efforts appear to have been insufficient.
Here, German police in Mazar-e-Sharif to help train Afghan law enforcement. As the troop withdrawal approaches, the security situation at their base Camp Marmal has become so sensitive that they are not allowed to leave.
Afghan police take part in a drill at Camp Marmal this month. Only the most basic knowledge is taught: roadblocks, house searches, self-defense and making arrests, weaponry and a few legal principles, including human rights.
Here, Afghan police instructor Tarek conducts a training session. Critics question whether such efforts will be sufficient. Interior Minister for the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lorenz Caffier, who also currently heads the German Interior Ministers' Conference, has his doubts. The problem is "that in Afghanistan we primarily train recruits for basic police service," says Caffier, "and we don't know how many of them will remain with the police force and how many will go to work for the warlords."
It would be preferable to train more senior officers who are less embedded in the country's old clan structures, says Caffier. Here, Afghan police take part in a shooting drill.
