Ottawa is spending $16 million in Afghanistan to set up a staff and language training centre for junior officers in the Afghan National Army, Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced Tuesday in Kandahar.
MacKay is in Afghanistan on a surprise visit with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to visit with Canadian troops and meet the new governor of Kandahar province.
MacKay said the centre, which will be located in Kabul, is intended to help the Afghan army stand on its own feet and gain the ability to withstand the Taliban without outside help.
"This we believe will help in terms of language training and military training and cooperation. This will be a great benefit as Afghan National Army and Afghan security forces continue to build stability and capacity," MacKay said.
The trip came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai responded to the deaths of 90 civilians who were killed in an American air strike in Herat province.
Karzai called on coalition troops to alter their rules of engagement to prevent such accidents from happening.
"This is becoming a political issue in Afghanistan," Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, told Â鶹´«Ã½net. All sectors of Afghan society want to see a solution to cut down on Afghan civilian deaths, he said.
Afghan Defence Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardack, who appeared at the Tuesday news conference with MacKay, said such incidents play into the hands of the Taliban. He agreed greater efforts are required to prevent civilian deaths.
"There's a requirement, a need to exercise more caution," Wardack said.
"We see that we can further improve by fusing much more of our intelligence, doing a much better analysis and also integrating our planning and bringing more closely together our operational cohesiveness, which will take care and prevent the repetition of further incidents which are so unfortunate."
Samad said the discussion has to take place with all NATO partners. "We know the countries involved are not doing this in any purposeful way," he said, noting the Afghan government fired two military officers over their role in the Herat deaths.
MacKay said Canadian troops take all the necessary precautions to avoid civilian deaths.
"We have tremendous confidence and faith in our leadership in Afghanistan, and of course Gen. (Brig.-Gen. Dennis) Thompson who is leading Task Force Kandahar here. Canadian troops are fully aware of all precautions that have to be pursued as we carry out this mission," he said.
Canada is "one of the partners that has done its utmost in trying to work with us," Samad said.
While in Afghanistan, MacKay also tested out the new unmanned surveillance drones purchased by Canada for the Afghan mission.
