CIVPOL Diary: A funny thing happened on the way to Qualat

By Insp. Joe McAllister

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So, I thought I would tell you a funny story about how my year started. First, I have to set the stage for this event. There is a program underway to re-train the Afghan National Police (ANP) called Focused District Development (FDD). It includes tearing down all the illegal checkpoints (up to 23 in some areas) and re-training the ANP from these checkpoints.

Once the ANP have been re-trained, re-equipped with new weapons, new vehicles and uniforms, they’ll be returned to their upgraded offices. The first round of the program is in Zabul and Qualat city. Along with a few military personnel, I decided to check it out. Now, to travel in Afghanistan takes some planning. We only had one day for this assessment, so we decided to fly via helicopters. Initially, we were going New Years day, but that got cancelled and no one told me.

The next day, we showed up at the hanger and the good police officer in me should have realized that this was not going to be a great day when we were told that the computers crashed and all manifests were lost.

There are several flights going in several directions, so you want to be sure you catch the right one. A Canadian Captain came out to tell the three of us that we were on two different flights, both going to Qualat. Flying through the mountain passes, seeing camel trains, herdsmen with their goats and sheep in the most remote areas and mountains was absolutely worth the price of admission.

We flew over a village with a large military base. It looked good to us and the timing was right on, so we got out and headed over to meet a party of American military who welcomed us to their base. We asked where we could find Col Moore, our contact for the visit. The Capt said "Col Who? No Col Moore here." Not a good sign. So, we asked the six million dollar question. "Is this Qualat?" And you can guess the answer. Even before he said no, we had turned to watch our ride take off in a swirl of dust, leaving us at this remote base in the mountains.

We quickly found out the helicopters were coming back and heading to Qualat. We spent some time learning about the village of Shinkai which is where we were. They were having some interesting issues with their police and army, so we exchanged notes and information.

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Our birds came back and we headed off to Qualat and, yes, this time we asked before we got out of the helicopter. When we landed in Qualat, we found our third partner who had been wandering the base looking for us. We all eventually found the Col we had come to see and sat with him and an American Captain to find out in 20 minutes or less, all we needed to know about FDD. It was very useful and helped us immensely in learning what we need to do to make FDD a success in our region. This is one, if not our major focus.

I also just spent a few days with all the legal advisors (Legads) for Regional Command South to determine what parts of Rule of Law are working, what isn't and how we as an international community can make that happen.

In Canada, we speak of the "three C's"; Cops, courts and corrections. All have to work together for the system to function. In Afghanistan, we are attempting to mesh those systems and teach them about forensics, statements, rights of the accused and of course rules of evidence.

I guess it’s easy to say that Afghanistan is a land far away and why should we care? Everyone I've met here — military, civilians working at the camp, police officers from other countries, our own men and women and especially the locals who work with us — know why we are here and we are making a difference.

Without the effort, girls wouldn’t go to school, women would have few if any rights, freedom of religion and democratic rights wouldn’t exist, there would be no health care, or development and little if any humanitarian aid would reach the needy. Without security and opportunity, what do the people resort to?

There is progress. It’s not huge, but it is happening. I've seen it in the short time I've been here and I anticipate seeing a lot more before I leave.

Next week I'm out on the road visiting some interesting locations: a camp of internally displaced persons and a few of our substations and check points. I'm then in Kabul for a week of meetings and I get to celebrate my 48th year on this planet while up there, which will be nice.

I hope you are all well and sticking to your new year's resolutions.

Joe