(NSI News Source Info) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - March 17, 2009: Canada will pay the equivalent of all the police salaries in the province of Kandahar for two years, two federal cabinet ministers announced Monday after touring law-enforcement sites in Kandahar city.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, who also chairs the cabinet committee on Afghanistan, announced that $21-million would be spent to strengthen the rule of law in this country where security conditions have markedly deteriorated.
Canadian armoured vehicles from the NATO-led coalition cover soldiers as they search for IED (Improvised Explosive Device) during a mission in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan March 15, 2009.
Assisting police, courts and corrections officers is one of Canada's top six priorities for Afghanistan's development, said Mr. Cannon. The announcement, he said, includes $19-million to pay for the salaries of police officers of the Afghan national police and $1-million for the salaries of Afghan correctional officers.
Because the money will be distributed through the law-and-order trust fund of the United Nations Development Program, it will not be targeted specifically to the province of Kandahar where the Canadian military is stationed.
But “Canada's contribution will pay for approximately 3,000 Afghan police salaries for two years – and this is comparable to paying the salaries of all Afghan police forces in Kandahar until 2011,” said Mr. Cannon.
He and Mr. Day spent a little more than 24 hours on the ground in Kandahar city. They visited a training centre at the camp of the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team where police officers and corrections workers are being taught better ways of doing their jobs.
They stopped at a police substation built with Canadian money in one of the most dangerous sections of the city.
And they toured the Sarposa prison where a spectacular Taliban attack last June freed 1,200 prisoners, most of whom have never been caught. The giant hole in the wall surrounding the jail has been repaired, with the help of Canadian funds, but the jail break remains a dark lesson in the growing strength of the insurgency.
Inside the prison, the men are kept in large open cells that allows for interaction with other inmates, they questioned a couple of the prisoners about their conditions and whether their rights were being respected.
The repeated answer was yes. But one man, who was behind bars for political crimes, claimed he had been falsely accused.
Mr. Cannon said improving the court system in Afghanistan is an objective of his government.
Mr. Day, who also visited Afghanistan two years ago, said he was impressed with the progress that has occurred in the interim.
“We have seen the results of increased training. We've seen how that's taking hold. We heard positive reports from prisoners themselves about the good treatment that they get, about their respect for the leadership at the prison itself,” he told reporters.
As recently as 2007, inmates at the prison said they had been abused.
“There will also be $1.3-million that will go to the human rights fund to continue the promotion of human rights and instruction along those lines,” said Mr. Day, “and we are also announcing $347,000 to go to the reconstruction of the prison which was significantly damaged some time ago in the terrorist attack.”
Mr. Day said he was encouraged by the security situation in Kandahar. The people of the city “are actually beginning to see enough stability that relative prosperity and economic progress is now within their grasp.”
That jars with the assessment of a top Canadian military commander. Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, who headed the military mission in Kandahar until last month, said in early in March that “people's sense of security has absolutely plummeted.”
In fact, a press conference with Mr. Day and Mr. Cannon on Sunday had to be moved from the governor's palace in downtown Kandahar to the PRT grounds for security reasons.
And on Saturday, a remote-control bomb exploded as a convoy carrying the city's mayor was passing by, killing one man and wounding seven. The mayor was mildly hurt.
A report by the Canadian government released on March 4 found that security in Kandahar deteriorated in late 2008 as Taliban militants stepped up their attacks and crime spiked.
“In Afghanistan generally, and in Kandahar specifically, security conditions remained especially dangerous and by some measures deteriorated during the quarter,” the report said.
“Insurgency activity continued in and around Kabul. Criminal and factional violence compounded the insecurity generated by the insurgency in the capital and surrounding areas.”
Canadian armoured vehicles from the NATO-led coalition cover soldiers as they search for IED (Improvised Explosive Device) during a mission in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan March 15, 2009.
Assisting police, courts and corrections officers is one of Canada's top six priorities for Afghanistan's development, said Mr. Cannon. The announcement, he said, includes $19-million to pay for the salaries of police officers of the Afghan national police and $1-million for the salaries of Afghan correctional officers.
Because the money will be distributed through the law-and-order trust fund of the United Nations Development Program, it will not be targeted specifically to the province of Kandahar where the Canadian military is stationed.
But “Canada's contribution will pay for approximately 3,000 Afghan police salaries for two years – and this is comparable to paying the salaries of all Afghan police forces in Kandahar until 2011,” said Mr. Cannon.
He and Mr. Day spent a little more than 24 hours on the ground in Kandahar city. They visited a training centre at the camp of the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team where police officers and corrections workers are being taught better ways of doing their jobs.
They stopped at a police substation built with Canadian money in one of the most dangerous sections of the city.
And they toured the Sarposa prison where a spectacular Taliban attack last June freed 1,200 prisoners, most of whom have never been caught. The giant hole in the wall surrounding the jail has been repaired, with the help of Canadian funds, but the jail break remains a dark lesson in the growing strength of the insurgency.
Inside the prison, the men are kept in large open cells that allows for interaction with other inmates, they questioned a couple of the prisoners about their conditions and whether their rights were being respected.
The repeated answer was yes. But one man, who was behind bars for political crimes, claimed he had been falsely accused.
Mr. Cannon said improving the court system in Afghanistan is an objective of his government.
Mr. Day, who also visited Afghanistan two years ago, said he was impressed with the progress that has occurred in the interim.
“We have seen the results of increased training. We've seen how that's taking hold. We heard positive reports from prisoners themselves about the good treatment that they get, about their respect for the leadership at the prison itself,” he told reporters.
As recently as 2007, inmates at the prison said they had been abused.
“There will also be $1.3-million that will go to the human rights fund to continue the promotion of human rights and instruction along those lines,” said Mr. Day, “and we are also announcing $347,000 to go to the reconstruction of the prison which was significantly damaged some time ago in the terrorist attack.”
Mr. Day said he was encouraged by the security situation in Kandahar. The people of the city “are actually beginning to see enough stability that relative prosperity and economic progress is now within their grasp.”
That jars with the assessment of a top Canadian military commander. Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, who headed the military mission in Kandahar until last month, said in early in March that “people's sense of security has absolutely plummeted.”
In fact, a press conference with Mr. Day and Mr. Cannon on Sunday had to be moved from the governor's palace in downtown Kandahar to the PRT grounds for security reasons.
And on Saturday, a remote-control bomb exploded as a convoy carrying the city's mayor was passing by, killing one man and wounding seven. The mayor was mildly hurt.
A report by the Canadian government released on March 4 found that security in Kandahar deteriorated in late 2008 as Taliban militants stepped up their attacks and crime spiked.
“In Afghanistan generally, and in Kandahar specifically, security conditions remained especially dangerous and by some measures deteriorated during the quarter,” the report said.
“Insurgency activity continued in and around Kabul. Criminal and factional violence compounded the insecurity generated by the insurgency in the capital and surrounding areas.”
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