EU will send mission to train Afghan police
Source: Reuters
(Updates with news conference, details, background) By Marcin Grajewski BRUSSELS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Monday to send a mission to help train local police and overhaul the judicial system in Afghanistan, whose government is struggling with an Islamist insurgency. "We want to construct the police capability in Afghanistan," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a news conference after a meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers. Brussels diplomats said some 160 police officers and up to 70 experts are to take part in the mission which, according to the EU statement, will help "address the issue of police reform at central, regional and provincial level". The mission is expected to cost about 40 million euros ($51.84 million) this year. The executive European Commission proposed this month a 600-million euro ($777.7 million) package for Afghanistan for health, justice and rural development over four years. EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the mission's major task would be to help root out rampant corruption in Afghanistan, which analysts say often turns local populations against the government of President Hamid Karzai. "Public prosecutors, the supreme court, the ministry of justice ..., all these things need to be urgently reformed," she told the conference. "The way it is today makes it very difficult for judges to have sufficient authority, sufficient qualification and be free of ... corruption." DRUG PRODUCTION The mission will also tutor senior commanders on criminal investigations, border control and training police recruits, notably to help the country fight drug production. So far, Germany has been helping train Afghan police, using about 40 experts and Italy has been assisting judicial reform efforts. NATO has been pressing the EU to do more in Afghanistan as the alliance seeks to find more troops for its force, which is facing stubborn resistance from Taliban insurgents. NATO commanders have in the past forecast the imminent end of the insurgency. However, more than 4,000 people were killed in violence in 2006, the bloodiest year since U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban government in 2001. Among EU priorities is combating opium production, which destabilises Afghanistan politically and economically. Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's opiates and about one fifth of the illegal drugs are smuggled to Europe, Russia and the United States via the so-called "northern route" through Central Asia. Britain has been the lead nation in efforts to curb Afghan drug output.
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