A swift shift toward police training
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SANGISAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The night before the launch of Canada's police mentorship program, Captain Marc-Andr Langelier picked his way through a darkened outpost toward his students.
The young officer from Royal 22nd Regiment had been assigned to teach 10 Afghan police officers how to survive and defend their new checkpoint.
The wooden beams of the guard posts smelled of freshly cut lumber, and the Canadian troops who built the fortification watched carefully for signs of the Taliban they had chased away only days before from this cluster of villages known as Sangisar, about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar city.
Capt. Langelier ducked into the metal shipping container that serves as the local police station, a small box cramped with shadowy men and Kalashnikov rifles, silhouetted in the glow of a penlight dangling on a wall. The Afghans ushered him to a place of honour in the room, on a cushion beside the police commander, and poured him a cup of tea.
He sipped the brackish liquid hesitantly, obviously trying to be polite, doing his bit to foster a relationship that is crucial for any hope of a successful outcome in Afghanistan. Turning the ragtag police into a professional and effective force is the cornerstone of Canada's strategy.
Canadians captured this terrain last year and set up checkpoints to keep the insurgents away, but the Taliban destroyed the outposts after the Canadians handed them over to Afghan authorities. Capt. Langelier's comrades reoccupied the same ground earlier this month, and plan to stay until he and the other trainers from the Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team have prepared the local officers to fend for themselves.
Sitting the dark, with his legs crossed awkwardly, Capt. Langelier started a conversation that would reveal how difficult that task will be.
We will start tomorrow morning, he said. What do you want to learn?
The police commander, Raz Mohammed, paused before replying. Only in his mid-20s, the leathery man said he has already fought more battles than any of the Canadians. He served in a militia for a tribal warlord who ruled this part of the district before the Taliban rose to power, and for a short period after their defeat. The international community poured millions of dollars into disarming such warlords, then rearmed many of the same gunmen with the creation of the Afghan National Auxiliary Police.
I don't know what you could teach us, Mr. Mohammed told his foreign guest.
In fact, Capt. Langelier had not prepared to teach police as he trained for Afghanistan. The creation of the POMLT was a last-minute decision, amid rising concerns about the local police, and soldiers who had been scheduled to teach the Afghan army were redirected to the new program.
Still, much of the training will be similar for police and army, Capt. Langelier said, because in southern Afghanistan the police function as paramilitary units, fighting some of the most pitched battles.
Will this program involve running? the police commander asked, skeptically. He reminded the Canadian that his officers are observing the daylight fasts required during the holy month of Ramadan, which means they're weak for most of the day.
That's a point, the captain replied. I didn't really see that. They agreed that the training would be limited to two hours, starting at 6 a.m., when the soldiers are still digesting their pre-dawn meals.
The lessons would be tactical, Capt. Langelier said, suggesting the Afghans could learn how to ration their bullets, how to move under covering fire, and how to pin down their enemies with machine guns.
These battles are a piece of cake for us. We've been doing this for 20 years, Mr. Mohammed observed.
The truth is that Afghan police desperately need to get stronger. Hundreds of officers have died this year as the Taliban increasingly targets them as symbols of government rule who are more easily killed than the foreign troops.
The local commander said the real problem is a lack of equipment and money. My men won't work unless they are paid properly, he said. Two months, three months, we don't get paid.
Mr. Mohammed accused the district police chief of taking the money intended for his salaries. The police are often more circumspect about directly accusing their superiors of corruption, but news had already reached the outpost that the district chief had been fired earlier in the day. A senior Canadian military official said that whoever replaces the chief, he can't be worse than the previous guy, let me tell you.
The next morning at 6 a.m., Capt. Langelier stood in a field near the outpost and waited for his students. They straggled in a half-hour late and showed little enthusiasm for his description of hand signals they could use to communicate in battle.
Sir, I don't think they care about these things, said an interpreter.
It will come, Capt. Langelier said.
A babble of arguing voices erupted.
They're saying we've been doing this for years, the interpreter said. I try to tell them, You suffer so many casualties, you must learn so you do not die.'
Good, good, the captain said. Did they understand?
The interpreter looked uncertain. I think so, he said.
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