EUPOL: READY FOR LONG-TERM COMMITMENT IN AN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 001128 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019 TAGS: MARR PREL AF EUN SUBJECT: EUPOL: READY FOR LONG-TERM COMMITMENT IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF APPRECIATION Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Christopher Murray for reasons 1 .4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: On August 11, EU Civilian Operations Commander, Kees Klompenhouwer, met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers to discuss the EU's efforts to reform and train the Afghan police forces. Klompenhouwer acknowledged that Afghanistan is unlikely to become a South Asian Switzerland anytime soon, but said a return to the relative stability of King Zahir Shah's reign would be an acceptable outcome. He said getting Afghanistan to that point, however, will take at least 10 years. Turning to the EUPOL police mission, he said the EU has limited resources, given the reluctance of national and local police forces in EU Member States to release personnel for an overseas operation. Even so, he said EUPOL is expanding and is doing important work by "building from the top down" to create a civil police force, starting with the Kabul city police. Asked how to solicit greater contributions from European countries, Klompenhouwer said the key is making civilian action more visible and creating an "atmosphere of appreciation" rather than denigrating European efforts for their small numbers of personnel. Klompenhouwer said EUPOL can make an important contribution of niche expertise, even if its numbers are swamped by the U.S.-led training effort. Klompenhouwer praised U.S. and NATO efforts to develop the Afghan police from the bottom up, but said criticism of the EU's top-down civil policing approach by NATO and U.S. officials weakens European commitment to the mission. He concluded by noting that EUPOL is increasingly deploying police out to the provinces, including in the dangerous south, but faces logistical and force protection challenges that it cannot resolve without assistance from PRT lead nations. End Summary. AT LEAST 10 YEARS ¶2. (SBU) On August 11, EU Civilian Operations Commander and Director of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC),Kees Klompenhouwer, met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee stl real "Qern as civilian operations commander. With EU police forces already supporting missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is difficult to convince national and local police authorities to release their personnel for a mission in Afghanistan. Even so, he said, the EUPOL mission has grown to more than 250 and should reach 300 personnel shortly, with the eventual goal of a 400-strong mission. Klompenhouwer speculated that additional funds from the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy budget, or even from the European Commission, to reimburse local police forces for their contributions could help facilitate further contributions. Eighty percent of the personnel in EU police missions are active duty police, with only 20 percent being contractors. Contributing Member States not only have to release these active duty personnel for missions, but also provide training for them in addition to the week-long introductory training they receive once deployed. Meanwhile, the attrition rate for trained police in Afghanistan is 50 percent after one BRUSSELS 00001128 002 OF 002 year, he reported. This loss of trained personnel carries the obvious implications, Klompenhouwer said. CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF APPRECIATION ¶5. (C) The Senate staffers asked what the U.S. can do to help ensure greater EU contributions to police training, Klompenhouwer said there are two keys: 1) make civilian, rather than military, efforts more visible; 2) create an "atmosphere of appreciation" for European contributions. Too often, Klompenhouwer said, NATO and U.S. officials belittle the EU's contribution as too small, rather than focusing on the added value it provides. Klompenhouwer praised U.S. police training efforts through the Focused District Development (FDD) program and said NATO will make an important contribution. Acknowledging that some NATO-EU rivalry is natural, he said the competition and criticism from NATO quarters has been damaging in the case of Afghanistan. He welcomed NATO's "determined effort" to fill the need for a gendarmerie force for district-level action, but said criticism from NATO and U.S. officials of the EU's efforts weakened European political will to contribute to EUPOL. If civil policing is of value as a complement to FDD, he said, the U.S. should not belittle EUPOL's role in providing top-down training or criticize EUPOL for not undertaking a mission it is not designed to do. Klompenhouwer had linked these remarks to the gendarmerie initiative of earlier this year. COORDINATION IS THE KEY ¶6. (C) On the other hand, Klompenhouwer praised CSTC-A and Maj. Gen. Formica for productive cooperation in theater. Citing one specific case, Klompenhouwer said three EUPOL civpol -- provided by non-EU country New Zealand -- had trained thousands of Afghan police at the regional training center in Bamyan province. He said the training was organized by Dyncorp and paid for by the United States, but executed principally by EUPOL officers. Klompenhouwer said this example demonstrates how close cooperation leads to successful efforts. He also argued that this example shows that numbers are not the only key to success; the niche expertise provided by EUPOL also has value. ¶7. (C) Klompenhouwer closed by describing EUPOL's efforts to take on a greater role in the provinces. He said EU civpol were present even in dangerous provinces like Helmand and Kandahar. The key challenge is logistical, he argued. EU civpol need to integrate into PRTs to be successful, but PRTs -- even those from EU Member States -- often have different priorities. In one case, Klompenhouwer said he had to speak to an EU Member State defense minister just to ensure that his personnel would have beds at a PRT. With essential force protection and logistical support from the PRTs, he said, EUPOL can establish a useful presence at the provincial level. (Comment: The CPCC has signed technical arrangements with all PRT lead nations except the U.S. and Turkey to allow for logistical and in extremis support. The EU's request to pursue a similar formal agreement with the U.S. will be reported septel.) ¶8. (U) Senate staffdel departed post prior to clearing this message. .