KABUL, Jan 29, 2004 (Xinhua via COMTEX)
- The Afghan government has sent a police contingent to the southern city of Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold still being plagued by attacks from the ousted militia, a United Nations spokesman said on Thursday.
"The 300 police from Kabul, the capital city, had been deployed there for an indefinite period to play a key role in promoting good governance and enforcing local security," Manoel de Almieda e silva of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told a press briefing here.
The contingent, including 50 officers and 250 patrolmen, would help to create a conducive environment for the implementation of an integrated security stabilization and reconstruction program in the country.
According to the spokesman, the government-level program, supported by UNAMA and other organizations, is aimed at expanding reconstruction activities and establishing basic security as well as good governance across in the war-torn country.
He added that the Kabul police contingent would remain in Kandahar, where the new program is expected to begin soon, until the situation is felt stabilized and the reform of local police shows signs of significant progress.
With a main US military base at the city's airport, Kandahar has been the scene of assassinations and bomb attacks by guerrilla fighters of the Taliban in recent months.
Meanwhile, US and Afghan experts would begin to train some 700 police from five eastern provinces near the capital city late this month on anti-drugs enforcement skills, the UN spokesman said.
The three-week training course is expected to train Afghan policemen on national and international standard policing with a heavy emphasis on human rights, general police ethics, proactive policing, and community policing.
Such a program could be seen as a complement to the training by Germany, which is the lead nation assisting the reform of the Afghan police, the spokesman said.
Copyright (c) 2004 Comtex News Network
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 01/29/2004 04:55:19