CIVPOL Diary: Dogs, Dams and New Customs

By Supt. Joe McAllister

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Kandahar, Afghanistan — Well here we are at the start of Ramadan. This is when Muslims fast from sun up to sundown and abstain from smoking and sexual activities during daytime hours. Culturally, we have to be aware of these customs and manage our expectations and actions to be sensitive to this. As such, most of our activities are confined to mornings and end before noon. Even our training classes have to be scheduled to incorporate this. We also curtail our activities to not drink or eat in front of the Afghans, which realistically is not that big of a deal.

Last month was pretty challenging as we lost five soldiers and several more were injured. Ramp ceremonies are never easy and when you see three coffins on the same one, it is even harder to put it all into perspective. The padres do a great job, as does the military leadership. The various units are so close knit too, so they are there for each other. I’m told that when they get home, that’s truly the time for the units to mourn and deal with their grief. Here, the bad guys don't give you a day or an hour off, so you just don't have time.

A Civpol on patrol in Kandahar City.
click to enlarge

Police wise we have been active with several major security events in and around the city. We did joint planning and operations training based on our Incident Command Systems back home for four major events that took place in August. There was Afghan National Independence Day - a few days of celebrations and parades. We also had a major conference of Afghan and international political and military heads and we had two major moves of conveys through the city. Both went off very well.

We are also attempting to reignite our training center to be named the Provincial Training Centre and to build up accommodations, kitchens, a recreation area and a mock village for training.

We have a new governor in the province who was a previous military commander, so he knows a lot about security. He has taken a keen interest in the police which is a good thing for us. I asked in Kabul if anyone was studying police deaths, how they occurred and whether there was additional training that could be taught, so we could help them better survive. One answer I got was that there were just too many deaths to study right now and no one was doing it. Once the numbers got lower, someone may look at it. I'm still working on it and we have some good people in Kabul who are digging into the funding to see what we can accomplish. This will become a personal pet for me to follow up on.

Last week I went to the Dhala dam – one of Canada's signature projects. It's an amazing site north of Arghandab. The dam holds back the Arghandab River, which is the irrigation system that feeds this entire area. It has been left to deteriorate for over 50 years, so Canada is helping to rejuvenate this system. I was there to work with the local police to provide infrastructure and systems improvements, so that the dam workers would have some security. The police have two mud huts, a couple of machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and AK47s. They have nothing else, so offering them upgrades is pretty easy.

One of the first projects is to build a road and bridge that can hold the weight of construction equipment, so the work trucks can get in. From there the building will begin.

A new thing I learned up there was how Afghans treat their animals. Up on a mountain checkpoint we had to hike to, I encountered local police and their two dogs. They were mangy beasts, but being a dog owner and lover, and wanting to just chat with these police I asked the normal question; "What's your dog's name?" To which they replied, "It’s a dog, why would we give it a name?" And I said, "Well, because it’s your pet and you should name him." They all laughed and said, "They are dogs, we call them dogs.” At least they don’t eat them like in East Timor.

From the desert where all is well and I’m not fasting (they make fresh cookies here every day!).

Joe