Feeling Secure in Afghanistan
As though Afghans haven't enough to worry about. They share their country with a foreign military presence, for one thing, albeit a military coalition that the current government of Afghanistan has pleaded to remain to assist in stabilizing the country while it gains control of their country, battling a resurgent Taliban.The fact that the country is torn between a West-approved democratic-style parliament in the wake of a rigidly theistic-based dictatorship has left the population worn out, tired of war, struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy. While the people of Afghanistan suffered under the rule of the Taliban, they are still suffering under the protective umbrella of NATO, and their newly-installed and still-ineffective government.
A government which still has to prove itself. A government that is made up in part of hated war lords, corrupt parliamentarians and distrusted representatives. Civic infrastructure remains in disarray and is clearly inadequate to bring this long-suffering people beyond the 19th century into the present. It has been distinctly unhelpful that Afghanistan's neighbourly nemesis Pakistan, has been identified as assisting the Taliban.
The reconstruction in Afghanistan is constantly being hampered and set back by incursions and raids of the militant Taliban who murder innocents and destroy any advances made possible by the work of reconstruction teams representing foreign assistance through NATO. Pakistan appears to offer the Taliban a blind eye, giving it encouragement to continue raiding into Afghanistan, crossing Pakistan's long border at will and without restraint.
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, visiting Kandahar where Canada's troops have been stationed on the front lines, announced a contribution of $10 million toward improving the salaries of Afghan police officers. In the hopes that higher salaries will compel the police officers to see their way through to rejecting activities inimical to the well-being of the country.
Customarily police overlords would dispense the cash wages; in this instance the salary support will be held in trust and go directly through bank accounts to new officers, defying the usual corrupt practices of unreliable and irregular payments. At a recent gathering of village elders in a former Taliban-led area, residents stated they welcomed the Afghan National Army, while pleading with NATO to halt the return of Afghan police, citing corruption and crimes against the population.
The country has many challenges, not the least of which is their corrupt, under-equipped police force. A new police training centre has been launched and there are hopes the situation may improve. One might think that cleaning out the Afghanistan parliament of former war lords whose blood-drenched hands remain graspingly corrupt might be a better first step.
Canada has handed over 1,500 police jackets and 2,500 pairs of winter gloves along with the $10 million to assist in the policing infrastructure in the south. Canada cannot do anything about the endemic corruption; this is something Afghans must demand be corrected.
Labels: Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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