- The robbers who cleaned out Qader Yusifi, a Kabul moneychanger,
were swift and single-minded. Within minutes they burst into his home,
locked his wife and children into a bathroom, and stole away with £6,000
- his entire working capital.
-
- But they were no ordinary thieves, said Mr Qader, hunched
over a gaslight after yet another power cut in his rundown, Soviet-built
apartment block.
-
- The masked robbers wore green military fatigues, brandished
AK-47 guns and, according to neighbours, escaped in a Toyota Landcruiser
with tinted windows - vehicle of choice for Afghan army commanders, former
Mujahideen fighters and senior government officials.
-
- "I am 100% sure they were military," he said.
And there was little hope of police collaring the culprits. "The police
are working with the thieves, I am sure."
-
- Laura Bush's surprise appearance in Kabul yesterday signalled
growing US confidence in Afghanistan's once-precarious security. The Taliban
insurgency is waning, military commanders claim, boosting reconstruction
efforts.
-
- But ordinary Afghans, alarmed by a swelling crime wave,
see it differently. Armed robbery, kidnapping and intimidation have displaced
the Taliban as the principal security problem. The line between cops and
robbers is becoming increasingly blurred.
-
- Although no official statistics are available, the perception
of a worsening situation is widespread. Frustration boiled over in the
southern city of Kandahar this month when thousands of men took to the
streets to protest at a spate of kidnappings that left at least one child
dead.
-
- Calling for the resignation of the governor and police
chief, the crowd smashed shop windows and destroyed several vehicles. Days
later, the Kabul government transferred the provincial security commander
to another area.
-
- Demobilised Mujahideen fighters, underpaid policemen
and corrupt officials are behind the lawlessness, according to Afghan officials,
western diplomats, and victims.
-
- Three Scotland Yard detectives flew back to Britain this
week after inquiries into the death of Stephen MacQueen, the British consultant
shot in his car in Kabul on March 7.
-
- By contrast with the US-led training of the new Afghan
army, the 38,000-strong police force is considered a failure by diplomats
and other officials.
-
- Scanty training and poor wages are part of the problem.
Judge Abdulbaset Bakhteyari said his children had been detained for several
hours recently after police pulled their driver over to seek a bribe.
-
- "Officers have no faith in the future so they work
for their own benefit," said Judge Bakhteyari, who works with AK-47
propped against the wall behind his desk.
-
- Thousands of newly demobilised mujahideen fighters have
been inducted into police ranks. Many have retained their criminal sidelines.
-
- The crime wave has heightened worries that a culture
of impunity has taken root in the Karzai administration.
-
- Several aid officials, requesting anonymity, said they
believed a senior police officer was behind the killing of five MÈdecins
sans FrontiËres (MSF) aid workers last June, which prompted the agency
to leave Afghanistan. The officer concerned has retained his job.
-
- Earlier this month two Afghan aid workers were killed
in the western Farah province, allegedly by renegade police officers.
-
- When angry relatives protested to the provincial police
chief, his bodyguards opened fire, killing one.
-
- Western officials have pressed the interior minister,
Ali Ahmad Jalali for reforms. Last weekend, he announced a shake-up of
the police.
-
- Yet the Karzai government's greatest crime challenge
may lie further up the ladder. Gleaming buildings sprouting up around Kabul
are seen as testament to the heroin trade, which accounts for over 40%
of the Afghan economy. Not one major smuggler has been prosecuted.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1448773,00.html
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