PRT/KUNDUZ: NEW POLICE CHIEFS RAISE HOPES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KABUL 002862 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS RELEASABLE TO NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, S/CRS, SA/PAB, S/CT, EUR/RPM, INL STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG NSC FOR AHARRIMAN OSD FOR BREZINSKI CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD E.O. 12958 N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR MARR AF SUBJECT: PRT/KUNDUZ: NEW POLICE CHIEFS RAISE HOPES FOR FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS IN NORTHEAST KABUL 00002862 001.2 OF 005 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The new police chiefs in Kunduz, Baghlan and Takhar are well-educated, professional, career police officers who have risen through the ranks over the past 20 to 25 years, assiduously avoiding direct participation in partisan politics and earning a reputation for loyalty and integrity. This stands in stark contrast to the former mujahideen commanders they are replacing, who had no formal police training or experience before being appointed as police chiefs and who have abused their positions of authority to engage in a broad range of criminal activity. While there are great hopes for these new chiefs, some question whether they will have the power and local support necessary to be effective. There is also a concern that given their low salaries, the pervasive culture of corruption, and pressure from local warlords, it may only be a matter of time before they fall to the same temptations as their predecessors. END SUMMARY. WATERSHED APPOINTMENTS -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The new police chiefs in Kunduz, Baghlan and Takhar, appointed earlier this month as part of the ongoing pay and rank reform in the Afghan National Police, could not be more different from the old-guard, former mujahideen commanders they are replacing. The new chiefs -- Sayed Ahmad Sameh in Kunduz, Mohammad Ewaz in Baghlan and Mujtaba Patang in Takhar -- are well-educated, professional, career police officers, all of whom got their start during the Soviet-backed Karmal regime of the early 1980s. Sameh, Ewaz and Patang have slowly risen through the ranks over the past 20 to 25 years, assiduously avoiding direct participation in partisan politics and earning a reputation for loyalty and integrity. None of them fought in the jihad against the Soviets or the Taliban, but chose instead to keep their heads down and to work faithfully as police officers under whatever government existed at the time. ¶3. (SBU) This, of course, stands in stark contrast to the career path of their predecessors, Mutalib Beg (mostly recently police chief in Kunduz and before that, in Takhar) and Mir Alam (police chief in Baghlan). Both were major mujahideen commanders who had little higher education and no formal police training or experience before being appointed as police chiefs. Mir Alam had been commander of the 54th AMF Division in Kunduz, while Mutalib Beg was a Takhar-based commander closely associated with his Uzbek compatriot General Dostum. But even after their appointments as police chiefs, both continued to act as mujahideen commanders rather than professional police officers, abusing their positions of authority to engage in a broad range of criminal activity, including extortion, bribery and drug trafficking. Their removal from power constitutes a major step forward in establishing rule of law in the northeast. OUT OF A JOB, BUT NOT OUT OF POWER -------------- -------------- KABUL 00002862 002.2 OF 005 -------------- ¶4. (SBU) One potential problem, however, is that while they are no longer police chiefs, they both still exercise significant power and influence in the region, and could frustrate the efforts of their successors to establish law and order. Alam, who has serious health problems, has moved back to Kunduz with no apparent immediate plans for the future. Already a wealthy man, Alam may ultimately choose to "retire" rather seeking another government position. On the other hand, Beg, who was escorted to his native Taloqan by a 100-car convoy after his June 6 replacement as police chief, clearly has ambitions for higher office. He claims he was already offered the governorship of Faryab province, but rejected it because it was too far away and he was not sure he would have the necessary public support there. He is clearly aiming for a governorship much closer to home. Of course, it would completely undermine the positive effect of having new, professional police chiefs in Kunduz and Takhar if Beg got his wish and was appointed to be governor of one of these two provinces. ¶5. (U) The following biographic information comes from extensive meetings that PRToff has had with the three police chiefs over the past two weeks. MOHAMMED EWAZ: NEW CHIEF IN BAGHLAN -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Mohammed Ewaz, 51, has spent the last two years serving as the commander of the Northeast Police Regional Training Center (RTC) in Kunduz. His American mentors at the RTC give him rave reviews for his leadership skills and integrity. Ewaz, an ethnic Tajik, was born and spent his formative years in Badakhshan, but attended high school in Kabul. He went on to study Afghan culture at Kabul University, eventually graduating with a diploma. He then worked as a high school teacher in Kabul for two years before deciding to pursue a career in law enforcement. He attended the police academy in Kabul for one year and was then assigned to Takhar police force, where he served in a variety of positions over a 20-year period, including battalion commander in Khwaja Ghar District along the border with Tajikistan; head of the information and culture section; chief of police in Rustaq District; chief of provincial police operations; chief of the political section; manager of personnel; and head of administration. His final position in the Takhar police department before moving to the Kunduz RTC was head of the criminal investigation section. ¶7. (SBU) Ewaz has had to endure a couple of short disruptions to his career as a police officer. When Najibullah was overthrown in 1992 and the mujahideen took over, Ewaz was jobless for a year until he could win the trust of the new government and get back into the Takhar police department. KABUL 00002862 003.2 OF 005 Similarly, Ewaz found himself out of work when the Taliban briefly took control of Taloqan from the mujahideen in the late 1990's. When asked whether he had ever taken up arms against the Soviets or the Taliban, Ewaz protested that he could never have been a jihadist because he was "an educated man." ¶8. (SBU) Ewaz had only been in his job for a week when he met PRToff, but already by that time, he had begun to end some of the more notorious corrupt practices of the Baghlan police. Ewaz noted, for example, that he had order police to stop collecting bribes at the three entrances into Puli Khumri. He admitted that this action had not been popular with police soldiers, who had been receiving a cut of the proceeds to augment their paltry salaries, but said it was necessary to win the trust and confidence of the local population. SAYED AHMAD SAMEH: NEW CHIEF IN KUNDUZ -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Sayed Ahmad Sameh, 50, was born and raised in Samangan province. He studied electrical engineering at Kabul Polytechnic University for two years in the early 1980's, but had to give up his studies early and return to Samangan in order to work to support his family. He spent three years as teacher and clerk before first becoming a police soldier and then a year later, a police officer in Samangan. He worked in a variety of positions in the Samangan police department over the next 10 years, eventually rising to chief of police. ¶10. (SBU) Sameh, an ethnic Uzbek, spent the Taliban period in Uzbekistan, but returned in late 2001 when the Northern Alliance liberated Samangan, and at the request of the provincial elders, re-assumed his position as chief of police. He was transferred to Sar-e-Pol in 2003, but he only stayed there only six months before returning to be the chief of police in Samangan. Sameh blamed his short tenure in Sar-e- Pol on the difficult security environment engendered by the lack of progress on Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of former military members. Sameh was replaced as chief of police in Samangan in 2004 while he was in India receiving medical treatment for a heart ailment. He was essentially jobless from then until his appointment as the new chief of police for Kunduz. Sameh was not a jihadist, and while he knows General Dostum (and vice versa),he claims that the two are not political associates. ¶11. (SBU) Like Ewaz, Sameh has already moved to cut down on police corruption in the Kunduz police department, especially regarding the issuance of passports. Until now, a passport could take months to obtain unless one paid a $200 bribe. Sameh said he would like to fire some clearly unqualified and corrupt police officers, but has been told by MOI not to bother replacing anyone until after the next round of pay and rank reform is announced, which KABUL 00002862 004.2 OF 005 should automatically remove many of these people. MUJTABA PATANG: NEW CHIEF IN TAKHAR -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Mujtaba Patang, 42, calls Logar home, but he was born and raised in Kabul, where his father worked as civil servant in the Ministry of Commerce. Patang, an ethnic Pashtun, got an early start on his law enforcement career, graduating from the police academy in Kabul when he was only 18 (the youngest in his year group). He worked several years in Mazar-e-Sharif, eventually rising to become a police battalion commander, before he was assigned to Kabul and the Ministry of Interior (MOI),where he has spent the bulk of his career. His assignments at MOI have included stints as commander of a 1,200-man police brigade and head of police training. Most recently, he was the director of liaison relations with Coalition and ISAF PRTs, responsible for supervising embedded MOI reps throughout the country. He was also a part-time professor at the police academy in Kabul, teaching two or three hours per day. ¶13. (SBU) After the fall of Najibullah and the takeover by the mujahideen, Patang had to accept a lower rank than before, but he was able to continue working as a police officer. However, during three years of the Taliban period, he did not have a position. Like Ewaz and Sameh, he never fought as a jihadist. ¶14. (SBU) In his first 10 days in office as police chief in Takhar, Patang has replaced key officers in the criminal investigation section, which is the most prone to bribery, and has asked local dignitaries from around the province to report to him any district police chiefs who are corrupt and/or engaged in illegal activities. He has moved to improve service to the public by extending the opening hours of the police HQ (before it was open only in the mornings) and by carrying out night police patrols throughout Taloqan and the surrounding area. He has set up complaint boxes around the city and says that he will open the boxes and read the complaints himself. FLAWED POLICE REFORM -------------- ¶15. (SBU) While all three police chiefs see their own appointments as evidence that police reform is progressing ("I did not pay anyone to get this position," Ewaz said proudly),they are nonetheless critical of the list of 86 police generals approved by Karzai. Sameh estimated that "about 35 percent" of the officers on the list did not deserve their appointments. Patang agreed that the number of unqualified officers on the list was far higher than the 13 highlighted by some in the international community. An ethnic Pashtun, Patang complained that he had scored high enough on his police exam to KABUL 00002862 005.2 OF 005 be a three-star general, but had been bumped down to a one-star position because of a perceived need to maintain ethnic balance and to keep certain former mujahideen commanders in place, notwithstanding their lack of qualifications. He said that the general officer selections should have been based solely on merit, without any consideration of ethnicity. (Embassy comment: Although the Selection Board process for senior police officers has in fact been transparent and merit-based (with the exception of the 13 mentioned above),Ewaz's skepticism reflects a broad public distrust of the central government's announced plans for civil service reform. It also plays into an abiding suspicion of ethnic bias, something that is deeply felt by members of all major ethnic communities. End embassy comment.) ¶16. (SBU) Patang was clearly disappointed to have landed the Takhar job, which he viewed as a demotion after his last position in the MOI, where he supervised 16 other general officers. He was hoping to be assigned as the chief of the border guards (a three-star position),the chief of the education section at MOI (a two-star position) or as the chief of police in Mazar-e-Sharif (a province he already knows well from his early career). The day before the official announcement, Patang said he was told he would be the chief of police in Kunduz, but for some still-mysterious reason, his assignment was changed overnight to Takhar. COMMENT: CAUTIOUS HOPES -------------- ¶17. (SBU) There are great hopes that these three new chiefs of police, who are bringing a wealth of education and experience to their positions, will prove far more competent and less corrupt than the old guard they are replacing. But the question remains whether these new chiefs, who are unfamiliar with the provinces to which they have been assigned, will have the power and local support necessary to be effective. There is also a concern that given their low salaries, the pervasive culture of corruption, and pressure from local warlords, it may only be a matter of time before they fall to the same temptations as their predecessors. The international community needs to actively support them so that they can be a force for fundamental change in their respective provinces. NEUMANN