Press Releases

November 16, 2007

Germany Triples Funds for Afghanistan Police

Kabul: Start of a new class for Police Academy trainees, ©Federal Foreign Office

Germany will significantly increase its support for the Afghan police. The funds will be increased from an annual 12 million euros to nearly 36 million euros for 2008, under an agreement reached today in the negotiations on the 2008 federal budget. The federal government will spend the money on better training Afghan police officers and helping them to work more effectively.

With the 35.7 million euros pledged for 2008, a total of 117.7 million euros will have been made available for the establishment of a police force in Afghanistan for the period from 2002 to 2008.

Germany has been supporting the Afghan police since the fall of the Taliban. It assumed a leading role in the establishment of the police force in 2002. The aim is to create a police force that the people trust and that is no longer dependent on outside assistance.

To this end, Germany established a national police academy in Kabul. There, police officers are trained in particular for mid-level positions. In addition, advanced training is also offered for the higher ranks. Not only do the police officers learn modern law-enforcement standards but they can also pass on their knowledge to their colleagues. This is critical because not all the police officers are able to be trained at once. Over all, the Afghan police are to reach a force strength of 82,000. Germany has trained roughly 19,000 police officers in total.

German support has also helped to eliminate a frequently inefficient police force structure that had a disproportionately high number of management personnel. Also, conditions were created to enable the police to receive their salaries regularly every month.

Building on this German model, support for establishment of the police force has been provided under European leadership since June 2007. Law enforcement experts from currently 17 EU and other countries are working together under the leadership of German Brigadier General Jürgen Scholz within the EUPOL Afghanistan Mission.

The German government will use the additional funds to support and complement the work of the EUPOL Afghanistan Mission, coordinating closely with Scholz. Above all, the effort is intended to strengthen the operative capabilities of the Afghan police and to help secure comfortable salaries for the police force.

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