THE US has renewed pressure on its European allies to increase their deployments of police trainers in Afghanistan ahead of tomorrow’s conference in London at which the international community will try to plot a way forward for the war-torn country.
The US also wants European governments to pledge significant financial support for Kabul’s efforts to “reintegrate” Taliban insurgents into mainstream Afghan society.
The London event, which will seek a framework for the government of President Hamid Karzai to gradually assume responsibility for the country’s security, follows an escalation of the US-led military campaign. The objective is to weaken the Taliban, making a political settlement more acceptable to it.
The conference – jointly hosted by British prime minister Gordon Brown, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and Mr Karzai – aims to set out a two-year road map for the country amid waning public support in the West for the war.
“From my perspective, all of us committed to this have our work cut out for us,” a senior US official told reporters in Brussels.
“Definitely, our fellow citizens back home, wherever they be, in Europe, in America, in Canada, in Australia, in Japan, have to see those concrete results also in order to have hope that what we’re doing is the right thing and that our partners are coming along in the effort, no question.”
The EU will be represented by foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will attend, as will the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s other partners. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was invited but has not yet decided whether to attend.
Mr Karzai is likely to come under pressure to take further steps to weed out corruption in his administration and improve its financial management.
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration’s first priority compared to that of its European allies was to secure more police trainers. “There is a real request for more civilian police trainers, realising the Afghan police need not just to get training by military guys.”
He declined to quantify the required number, but said training for armed and community police was needed. “In that combination Europe can make a difference.” The EU is funding a major portion of local police salaries in Afghanistan and some 300 European personnel are involved in the EU’s own police mission there, about 100 less than the target.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has seconded two rule-of-law experts to this mission. Another civilian expert will join them next month. This is in addition to seven Defence Forces members who are engaged in non-combatant duties with the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, a deployment that the Government expects to maintain for the foreseeable future.
While the US official did not mention a specific figure for the level of financial support needed for reconciliation efforts, he said European assistance was crucial.