Dutch-trained Afghan police can fight Taliban

The Afghan police being trained by the Dutch contingent in the northern Afghan region of Kunduz will be used for offensive operations if the Taliban attack civilian buildings such as a hotel, reports the Volkskrant on Monday.


The change in policy comes from the Kunduz police chief Samiulla Qatra and mission commander Ron Smits.
The original agreement was that Dutch police trainers and the local police they are training would only fight in self-defence. Foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal said in July he had been given guarantees by the Afghan authorities they would not be used in offensive military operations.
In practice, Dutch-trained police agents will be used briefly in offensive operations to help civilians or colleagues, say Qatra and Smits. This happened at the beginning of August when the Taliban attacked a hotel in Kunduz.
Sending police to deal with a Taliban attack of this kind is restoring public order, Smits told the paper. It is a civil and not a military operation.
‘In the Netherlands you don’t immediately call out the army to deal with a robbery. You send in the police,’ he said.
The first police on the scene can call in special forces to finish the job, according to Qatra. These special forces are being trained by the Germans.
The advantage of these ‘civil’ operations is that the Afghan police chief does not have to consult a list to see which officers he can send to an incident, says the paper.

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