KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military is warming to the controversial idea of arming local villagers in the Kandahar district of Panjwaii, a tactic credited with stemming violence during the Iraq war but criticized over concerns of insurgent infiltration.
The Afghan Local Police program, launched by President Hamid Karzai last August, is an initiative where village-level fighting forces are given guns and undergo a training course to provide security to their communities.
It's a gamble that NATO military commanders hope encourages locals to fight back against the Taliban, much like some Iraqi villagers did when they rose up against al-Qaida during the Sunni Awakening.
Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan said the ALP could soon be set up in the Horn of Panjwaii, the western belt of the district traditionally used as a springboard for insurgent attacks in the provincial capital of Kandahar city.
"We're trying to invigorate it out in the Horn," Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner said in a recent interview.
"The capabilities are there in the Horn to start establishing it and connecting it with the people."
Last month, Afghan government officials and senior military personnel including Milner met with about 200 village elders at the Panjwaii district centre in what's known as a "validation visit" to confirm a legitimate need for the ALP. It also provides an opportunity to address any concerns locals may have.
It's not yet in place in Panjwaii, but could serve as "a complimentary capability" to the Afghan National Police as Canada winds down combat operations, Milner said.
Canada has spent much effort on recruiting and training Afghan National Police officers as part of its counterinsurgency strategy in Panjwaii, a district southwest of Kandahar city known as the birthplace of the Taliban.
But it is uncertain whether it will be able to fulfil its goal on that front before the combat mission wraps up in July. The military says there are about 500 registered ANP out of 700 positions allocated for the district.
The concept of the ALP leaves some Afghan officials uneasy, fearful it could undermine confidence in Kabul's authority, particularly in remote regions of the country. There are also fears that the ALP lacks oversight, making it susceptible to infiltration from criminal and insurgent elements, and conjures up memories of the warlord-led militias who ravaged Afghanistan during the 1990s.
In a report released this week, the United Nations highlighted its concerns after observing the ALP in the provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Uruzgan and Daykundi.
"While recognizing the program has been operational for only a few months and that longer term evaluation is required, concerns have been raised regarding weak oversight, recruitment, vetting and command and control mechanisms," the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.
"It is important to note that the ALP's mandate, obligations and role regarding detention are not clearly defined or instructive on issues of arbitrary detention, handover process of detained persons, conditions of detention and prevention of abuses."
The UN also said it received reports that on Dec. 4, an ALP commander in Uruzgan issued an ultimatum to elders: provide men for his force or pay 15,000 Afghanis -- roughly the equivalent of $322.
"Several elders refused and were subsequently detained by the commander," the UN said, adding that they were released 11 days later "after reportedly paying an unspecified amount of money."
The UN said communities in the provinces of Herat and Paktika had a more positive view of the ALP.
Villagers undergo a three-week training session by special-forces soldiers and are issued rifles such as AK-47s but are not allowed to carry them outside their area of responsibility. They earn about 60 to 70 per cent of ANP wages and report to their local district police chief.
Under the program, 15,700 ALP positions have been allocated to 61 districts, but that can expand to 30,000 recruits in 100 districts.
Lt.-Col. Doug Claggett, chief of staff for the Canadian military in Kandahar, stressed that because the ALP is overseen by the Afghan government, it cannot be viewed as a militia-like force.
"It's not a militia as has been known to happen here in Afghanistan in the past," Claggett said in an interview Saturday. "They are actually part of the security institution of the country."
Canadian Maj.-Gen. Stuart Beare, who has served as the deputy commander of NATO's police training mission in Afghanistan since August, said the ALP plays a vital role in protecting the population where police forces are lacking.
"Ultimately the ALP is providing another form of thickening the security in the communities that can't be served yet enough by the police," Beare said.
"And it's a huge, huge vote by the locals against the Taliban and they know it and they hate it."
He said the ALP is an interim program that would cease once the security situation improves.
"In a number of years, when the security conditions shift and then you want to return to your ultimate counterinsurgency force (which) is your police force, then police professionalization, police modernization, police reform is what's going to carry this thing through."
