OSCE Chairperson supports counter-drugs training course for Afghan police officers

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 10 November 2010 - The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister and Secretary of State Kanat Saudabayev, stressed the importance the of tackling drug problems and security issues in Afghanistan, in connection with an OSCE-supported course for Afghan police officers that started in Almaty today.

Ten Afghan police officers are taking part in the two-week OSCE-supported counter-narcotics training course. Participants will learn how to plan and organize drugs search operations and how to employ modern training methods in their work. The officers will look at the entire process of prosecuting drugs-related criminal cases - from police investigation to the courtroom. The course is designed to train police officers from Afghanistan to subsequently train and instruct their colleagues.

"Kazakhstan's Chairmanship attaches great importance to successful realization of the OSCE project on training the Afghan drug enforcement officers launched at the Almaty Police Academy. The security in Afghanistan is inseparably linked to the security of the entire OSCE area, particularly in Central Asia. The OSCE, acting within its mandate and in close cooperation with relevant international organizations and the Government of Afghanistan is able to make further contribution to the collective international efforts aimed at the establishment of long-term security and stability in Afghanistan," Saudabayev said.

"This course is a part of our ongoing support to Afghanistan," said Knut Dreyer, OSCE Senior Police Adviser and the Head of the Strategic Police Matters Unit. "Developing effective counter-narcotics institutions is fundamental to long-term success. This seminar helps Afghan authorities strengthen the capacity of the national police."

"I am particularly pleased to note that for the first time we have a female police officer among the seminar participants. The Afghan government has increased efforts to increase the number of policewomen, who play an important role in a conservative society like Afghanistan's."

Farkhad Rokhmani, instructor of the Afghanistan's Academy on fighting drugs trafficking said: "We are instructors ourselves, and we need to study new methods of teaching, so that we could transfer knowledge and skills to police officers back home in Afghanistan. Teaching methodology is a field where our colleagues from Kazakhstan are very experienced in".

The training programme was developed jointly by the experts from the Police Academy of Kazakhstan and the All-Russian Advance Police Academy in Domodedovo, the Russian Federation.

Kazakhstan's OSCE Chairmanship financed and developed the project as part of work to assist assistance to Afghanistan in line with its priorities and in response to a decision taken by OSCE foreign ministers in 2007 on enhancing engagement with Afghanistan, an OSCE Partner for Co-operation. The course was co-organized by the Chairmanship and the OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit with support from the OSCE Centre in Astana. The Almaty Academy of Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry is hosting the course.

The OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit has helped organize several courses for police officers in the OSCE region.