Brussels, 14/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 13 November, EU Defence Ministers backed the possibility of sending a European police training mission to Afghanistan.
Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp, who had initiated the idea of sending troops to help the Afghan government train its police force, said consensus had been reached. The EU Political and Security Committee (COPS) will be meeting on Tuesday to decide whether or not to send such a mission. One diplomat said “this is just one more step towards operational planning”. Although the Dutch idea is slowly beginning to gain ground in European capitals, European Defence Ministers wished to state loud and clear that current Afghan shortfalls are more in the field of civil-military cooperation. According to the French Defence Minister, Michelle Alliot-Marie, the most urgent thing is to ensure there is a basis for coordination of civilian and civil-military action. She said “coherence is needed to ensure political visibility”. In her view, the EU has already played an extremely important role in Afghanistan as, between 2002 and 2006, the European Union provided one billion euros in financial aid to Afghanistan and, from 2007, €150 million annually will be earmarked to this effect. On the other hand, on the subject of possible EU participation in a police training mission in Afghanistan, Ms Alliot-Marie was more cautious, saying: “before launching such an operation, things must be clearer”. She nonetheless agreed that a “fact finding mission” should be despatched, but no more. British Defence Secretary Des Brown for his part called on the EU to work more effectively with its international partners in Afghanistan. “There is scope for the EU to reinforce and reinvigorate civilian work on the rule of law in Afghanistan. I want to see it make more of a contribution in this area by working more closely with international partners”, he said. In this respect, the EU High Representative, Javier Solana, recalled that, on the whole, the EU has already paid out over €3.7 billion in aid to Afghanistan. Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso welcomed the idea floated by the Netherlands to send a European mission to train the Afghan police force. “Spain would back such training as long as it is not a matter of carrying out a direct police mission”, he said, adding that Spain is willing to bring Afghan police officers to training centres in Spain. The matter will be tackled during the next Council of Ministers. Mr Alonso also announced that a Spanish soldier taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had been killed the previous day when a bomb exploded near a convoy of armoured vehicles, 120 km from Herat. On the subject of this incident, he recalled that constant vigilance is needed to prevent people being killed. (Source: Atlantic News) (bc)