Posted on 12/31/2002 2:08:47 PM PST by Recovering_Democrat
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- For the first time in a decade, Afghanistan's national police academy is training female officers to serve in the capital, interior ministry officials said Tuesday.
More than 60 women began a six-month training course several months ago at the police academy in Kabul and are expected to graduate in two months, said Interior Minister Taj Mohammed Wardak.
"We need more policewomen, and we're asking more to come," Wardak told The Associated Press. "Eventually we want 50 percent of our police forces staffed by women."
The women will be deployed across the city at checkpoints, at the airport, in jails and as criminal investigators, said interior ministry spokesman Alishah Paktiawal. Wardak said in the future female police would also be trained in provinces outside the capital, but no date has been set.
Women have slowly begun returning to the work force since the hardline Taliban regime -- which banned most females from jobs -- was overthrown in a U.S.-led war last year.
Kabul Police Chief Basir Salangi said about 8,000 police officers are now working in the city, 600 of whom are women who were trained before a brutal four-year civil war broke out between rival factions in 1992. Kabul's police academy officially reopened in August after it was refurbished with aid from Germany, which sent 48 new patrol cars -- mostly green and white minivans and a dozen officers to help train the Afghan police force.
Courses had not been taught for large numbers of potential cadets for a decade. Afghan police face a difficult task in a nation where security remains shaky. In recent weeks, U.S. troops and international peacekeepers have fallen victim to grenade assaults in the city.
The multinational peacekeeping force of 4,800 soldiers helps keep a check on troublemakers with regular patrols through the city. The rest of Afghanistan is largely in the hands of local warlords. Banditry outside the capital is common.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV 12-31-02 1111EST
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