More nations are pledging support, yet Nato still faces a shortage of 740 trainers needed to get Afghan soldiers and policemen ready to take the lead in securing their nation, the coalition's top training official says.
Needed most are 290 police trainers, including those to work in new training centres opening in Afghanistan this year, US Lieutenant General William Caldwell, the commander of Nato's training mission, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants his nation's police and army to take the lead in protecting and defending their homeland by 2014, a deadline that will be reached only if the training effort already on a fast track gets even more support from Nato and other nations. Caldwell said the coalition wants to have the additional 740 trainers in place by this summer.
"The Nato secretary-general has said, 'No trainers, no transition,"' Caldwell said. "He is exactly right. If you don't have sufficient numbers of trainers, then we can't set the conditions for transition in 2014."
The Afghan security force added more than 70,000 police and soldiers last year and now is 270,000-strong. It is well on its way to meeting Karzai's goal of reaching 305,600 by the end of October. Karzai is expected to announce his next target for growth in coming weeks. Besides filling training slots, however, the training mission faces challenges. Corruption within the ranks has been eased, but not eliminated, by raising salaries, issuing paychecks electronically and awarding promotions based on performance, not cronyism or favouritism. Increasing numbers of policemen and soldiers have been enrolled in literacy courses, but the inability to read and write continues to stifle efforts to professionalize the force.
The Afghan army and police still need thousands more officers trained. And there still is a critical shortage of trainers who can teach specific skills, such as how to manage military hospitals and clinics or fly and maintain Mi-17 aircraft.