LONDON CONFERENCE: GERMANY TO FOCUS ON POLICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000038 SIPDIS STATE FOR S/SRAP, EUR, SCA, INL E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2020 TAGS: MARR PTER PGOV PREL AFDB AF GM SUBJECT: LONDON CONFERENCE: GERMANY TO FOCUS ON POLICE TRAINING REF: A. BERLIN 22 ¶B. 2009 BERLIN 1622 ¶C. 2009 BERLIN 837 Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Greg T. Delawie for Reasons 1.4( b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Foreign Minister Westerwelle intends to emphasize the importance of civilian police training at the January 28 London Conference on Afghanistan and announce that Germany is willing to increase its contributions in this area. Although the inter-agency has yet to finalize the specifics of Germany's increased police training pledge, Interior Ministry contacts indicate they are planning a 50 percent increase in police trainers from the current 167 to 260 by mid-2010. Interior Ministry experts believe Afghanistan's civilian police force should be increased by 30,000 to a total of 109,000 and are urging Foreign Office colleagues to take this message to London. Raising the profile of civilian police training and other soft power tools such as development assistance is in step with Westerwelle's preference to steer the London discussions away from an exclusive focus on the sensitive issue of Germany's combat troop contribution. Germany's police training mission is politically non-controversial and does not require a Bundestag mandate. With this in mind, we should consider taking Westerwelle up on his offer to boost police training programs while at the same time pressing the Germans for more troops - which, among other things, will be needed to provide security and force protection for its police training and civilian assistance programs. END SUMMARY ¶2. (C) FM Westerwelle plans to stress the importance of police training at the January 28 London Conference on Afghanistan and prod participants to view the issue as a key element of an eventual hand-over of security responsibilities to the Afghan government. Westerwelle's public statements, confirmed by discussions with Foreign Office contacts, indicate that he believes the current public debate in Germany on Afghanistan over-emphasizes the issue of combat troop contributions and overlooks Germany's other key contributions, namely police training and development assistance. In advance of the London meeting, the German inter-agency is developing proposals to increase Germany's police training contributions. Responsibility within the German government for police training is divided between the Foreign Office, which provides the majority of funding for police training efforts, and the Interior Ministry, which provides the manpower and substantive training content. ¶3. (C) Ministry of Interior contacts told EconOffs that they are proposing to the inter-agency that Westerwelle announce in London that Germany will increase its bilateral staffing contribution to 200 police officers and increase its EUPOL contribution to 60, a more than 50 percent increase over the current levels. Germany currently has 167 police officers and law enforcement advisors in Afghanistan engaged in police training activities: 120 police are assigned to Germany's bilateral program and 47, comprised of 30 police and 17 civilian experts, are assigned to the EUPOL mission. MoI interlocutors indicate that identifying German police officers for the Afghanistan mission is not a problem, as there are more volunteers than spaces available (Note: roughly two-thirds of the volunteers are from the federal states and one-third from federal forces. End Note). MFA sources emphasize that police training funding levels for 2010 are undecided. In 2009, the MFA allocated 50.2 million euros to civilian police training (20 million for infrastructure building, 17 million on training, and 13 million for the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan). ¶4. (C) Interior Ministry experts believe that Afghan police forces need to be substantially increased and propose that the London Conference agree on a 30,000 increase in the end strength of the Afghan National Police (ANP) to a total of 109,000. Germany's bilateral program has built/refurbished training centers in Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Feyzabad and BERLIN 00000038 002 OF 002 Kunduz (opens later this month) that now have a total of 700 training spots and a yearly through-put capacity of 4,000. Germany runs a variety of training programs at these four centers for the Afghanistan National Civil Order Police, border police, traffic and criminal police. Interior Ministry representatives stress that these facilities are available to contribute to new training targets emerging from the London meeting. MFA contacts indicate that the MFA is supportive of an increased police training target, but they have yet to decide on a specific figure believing that questions regarding the future structure of Afghan police forces, financing issues, and a strong Afghan political commitment need to be clarified first. The MFA is also waiting to consider outcomes from upcoming Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) and International Police Coordination Board (IPCB) meetings before setting figures. Nevertheless, MFA contacts told EconOffs that if the U.S. were to propose a specific police training target for London, Germany would surely support it. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Westerwelle has long advocated a strengthening of international police training efforts in Afghanistan. In fact, this is one of the few consistent points he has made related to Afghanistan since last summer's election campaign. The non-military character of Germany's civilian police training contributions resonates with Westerwelle, and the fact that police training programs do not require a Bundestag mandate eases government decision making and implementation. Moreover, unlike the military engagement, Germany's police training activities enjoy broad support by all political parties and the public at large. Westerwelle will bring to London the message that boosting police training programs is a key factor to achieving self-sustaining security to Afghanistan. Germany's creation of a series of police training centers and other developments, such as their plans to manage Focused District Development programs in 44 districts by the end of 2012 (ref C),further demonstrate its commitment. We suggest taking Westerwelle up on his offer and push him to do even more for police training. With its four training centers and growing staff, Germany has the capacity to do so. Furthermore, the issue is politically non-controversial and aligns with the government's preference for soft power engagement. ¶6. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: Germany's police training efforts in Afghanistan have become, following the 4200-strong Bundeswehr deployment, Germany's most important contribution to Afghanistan's security. (The third leg of Germany's Afghanistan policy is development assistance. The Development Ministry recently increased aid to Afghanistan by 50 million euros, bringing Germany's 2009 total to over 260 million euros, and a Development Ministry contact indicated one can "expect a significant increase" in coming weeks.) Furthermore, Germany's Bundeswehr and police training activities are linked: deploying police training teams to remote districts requires military force protection. The Defense Ministry plans to devote an additional 150 soldiers to force protection duty to accommodate the planned increases in police mentoring teams this year (ref B). The Foreign Office assures us that the foreign minister is aware that his proposals for significantly increasing Germany's police contributions requires Bundeswehr force protection though this is something he has yet to publicly acknowledge. MURPHY