Fire & Disaster Police and Border Police: close cooperation and an open mind go a long way Kabul 2014. Most of the time, if you have clean hands, the encounters with Afghan Border Police (ABP) are pleasant: you meet the Border Police officers when enjoying the excitement of a journey. Fire and Disaster Police (FDP) come to help you in a very different situation. All the same, EUPOL has worked for years to train, mentor and advice the leadership and staff of these two vital parts of the Afghan police force. At the end of November it was the time to say thank you for the past years of cooperation as the further enhancements of ABP and FDB, were handed over to Afghan leadership. Border police officers all over the world have a role in building the image of the country they protect. However, in a country like Afghanistan the border police have to fulfill duties which their colleagues in some other countries are lucky enough not to meet on a regular basis. In addition to normal border police tasks, fighting against terrorists is part of the work of ABP officers. All the training, mentoring and advising of EUPOL has concentrated on enhancing the civilian policing capabilities. In the case of ABP it meant, since 2007, strong support to professionalisation of ABP to ensure the transformation of ABP from a reactive organisation to a proactive and effective operational force. The first step on the way was developing a specific Border Police training system based on their operational needs. The remarkable determination and devotion of the ABP officers has made EUPOL’s efforts more fluent. “In every training, in every workshop, all the Border police officers were exceptionally focused and highly motivated. It was very clear that every single police officer really wanted to learn more,” says Oliver Scudy, EUPOL Expert on Community Policing/Border Police. EUPOL Border Police Officer Yama Bakshi agrees: “Border Police were always very interested to gain experience from EUPOL experts, and EUPOL advising, mentoring and training had a great and positive impact on their performance in daily tasks.” Bakshi points out especially the Train the Trainer courses for participants from all regions of Afghanistan and the exchange programme of personnel from different airports: about 20 ABP officers from Kunduz airport came to Kabul and had on the job training at Kabul international airport. Another groundbreaking step towards more effective and functional ABP, Bakshi mentions the implementation of the shift system for the immigration section at KAIA airport. “The shift system made their work very efficient as in the past they were working constantly without any breaks which made them tired and naturally lowered their working capacity.” If Border Police was well motivated during all the years of cooperation with EUPOL, so also was the Fire and Disaster Police (FDP). Jaanus Teearu, who worked as a mentor/adviser for FDP, highlighted the proactive approach of the FDB management. “I was even surprised with the willingness of the senior management to do close cooperation; the mentees were really keen to absorb our knowledge and expertise. They also offered reasonable solutions to challenges. For example in one of our first meetings with the Deputy Head of FDP, Brigadier General Tajuddin explained that there is no point in pushing European procedures and standards to FDB; it’s much wiser to work closely together to find the best ways to have improvement in Afghanistan.” Brigadier General Tajuddin is satisfied with the results of the cooperation: “EUPOL’s contribution supported significantly our progress in recent years and is the basis for further development. One of the achievements is the establishment of cooperation procedures with international partners and bilateral contributions of EU Member states to FDP.” The Head of FDP, Major General Mahboob Amiri, also takes up the questions of cooperation, both at national and international level: “It’s important to create long-standing policy and cooperation with the international community to continue the modernisation of Fire & Disaster Police in order to guarantee that entire Afghan National Police works as a well-organised and capable organisation.” One of the major achievements of EUPOL cooperation with FDP, was the ‘Vision and Strategy Document’, while providing a concrete framework to modernise and professionalise FDP, will no doubt help with the long term planning as well as the implementation of the plans in the future which are essential for the fulfilment of the goals mentioned by Major General Amiri. All of those involved with EUPOL activities, both Afghans and internationals, agree that cooperation has been useful and that there are concrete results, changes in ways of working and capabilities. So is there a common dominator behind these success stories? According to Tarmo Miilits, EUPOL Head of Police Component, the answer is ‘yes’. “We have learned that the key to success in this kind of project is to have really good relationships with your counterparts. And I consider the leaders of these organisations as our friends. They are truly open for cooperation.” For Miilits it’s clear that EUPOLs work with ABP and FDP has given positive results as the performance of both organisations has improved in a way that can easily be seen. The Deputy Head of Mission Pia Stjernvall confirms this observation: “I started to work in Afghanistan in 2010 and I have seen with my own eyes the enhancement of ABP performance at the Kabul airport.” But there is still a lot to do. For example, FDP does not have a training college of its own and according to Tarmo Miilits, to achieve sustainability and more efficiency in FDP training, a permanent training facility with adequate circumstances for fire and disaster training would be essential. The funding of the training and mentoring activities with both ABP and FDP came from the budget of the Foreign Ministry of Estonia. A technical agreement between the Government of Estonia and EUPOL was the basis on which EUPOL coordinated, facilitated and implemented then activities. Although the EUPOL activities with ABP and FDP are now officially terminated, the European input will continue. The Estonian government will be funding further developments for Fire & Disaster Police in 2015-2015 and the German Police Project Team (GPPT) will take over the cooperation with the Afghan Border Police in Kaia Airport in Kabul. “EUPOL won’t forget its friends either. We will keep in touch with these police organisations in the future too,” Tarmo Miilits promises.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 05:50:16 +0000
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