Priority 1. Enable the Afghan National Security Forces in Kandahar to sustain a more secure environment and promote law and order.
The ANSF includes the ANA and the ANP. The Canadian Forces hold lead responsibility for training and mentoring the ANA in Kandahar. Capacity building for the ANP in Kandahar is led jointly by Canadian civilian police and U.S. partners, supported by the Canadian Forces.
Canadian Objective for 2011 (ANA): By 2011, we expect that the ANA in Kandahar will demonstrate an increased capacity to conduct operations and sustain a more secure environment in key districts of Kandahar, with support from ISAF allies.
The ANA shouldered a considerable and growing share of the Kandahar security burden during the quarter, conducting more than two-thirds of combat operations in the Canadian area of responsibility. In Kandahar City, joint ANSF patrolling and operations have become commonplace, with ANA, ANP and other Afghan officers planning and executing actions. Operations netted significant quantities of explosives and narcotics, along with large numbers of insurgents. The ANA increasingly conducts independent patrols in rural districts.
As the U.S. military presence expands across the province, the Canadian Forces have reoriented their area of responsibility from six key districts back to Kandahar City and its populated approaches. Coincident with this transition, the ANA itself has moved from a district-based system of deployment to a task-based system that deploys forces across districts according to operational priorities. To reflect this change, we have revised one of our ANA-related benchmarks: instead of counting the key districts where the ANA is responsible for security, we now track the percentages of security operations executed or led by the ANA within the redefined Canadian area of responsibility.
Canadian Objective for 2011 (ANP): By 2011, we expect that the ANP will demonstrate an increased capacity to promote law and order in key districts of Kandahar, supported by justice-sector and corrections capabilities.
Canada pursues a comprehensive approach to rule-of-law reform, helping to build capacity in the Ministry of the Interior, the ANP, and the corrections and court systems. Progress was achieved in each of these sectors.
With Canadian support and advocacy, the Afghan Ministry of the Interior authorized a marked increase in ANP recruiting; as a consequence, more police were expected in Kandahar before the August elections. To support the increase, Canada announced a new contribution of $12 million to help pay police salaries in Kandahar through the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, administered by the United Nations Development Programme. The number of civilian Canadian police officers deployed with the ANP and the Ministry of the Interior rose by 12 during the quarter, to 41.
Also during the quarter, the Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team training centre in Kandahar was certified by the Ministry of the Interior as an ANP training facility. This will allow Canadian police to provide advanced training to ANP officers, complementing basic training given through the U.S.-led Focused District Development program.
One year after the June 2008 insurgent attack on Kandahar City’s Sarpoza prison and the escape of several hundred Taliban prisoners, significant progress has been achieved in reinforcing prison security, rebuilding walls and other infrastructure, and improving prison administration. Half of Sarpoza’s officers have completed the final phase of their training, and all 18 prison managers have completed management training.
