Afghan local police guilty of serious abuses: Human Rights Watch

[xchrom]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Afghan-local-police-guilty-of-serious-abuses-Human-Rights-Watch/articleshow/9961565.cms

KABUL: An Afghan police force funded and supported by the United States is getting away with serious abuses including rape and murder, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published on Tuesday.

The findings ignite fresh questions about the Western exit strategy from Afghanistan and about handing full control of security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, when all foreign combat troops are due to have left.

The 7,000-strong Afghan Local Police (ALP), set up last year and touted as central to the security handover, arms residents protecting their communities in areas where the Afghan army and regular police have only limited reach.

They do not have law enforcement powers. HRW found evidence of ALP abuses including killings, rapes and arbitrary detentions in three provinces -- Baghlan, Herat and Uruzgan -- out of seven where it conducted interviews.

[MADem]

1. Serious Abuses = Business As Usual over that way.....

It's going to be a LONG, long time before the concept of "human rights" takes hold. Women have status right behind herding dogs, more or less.

All they can do is keep plugging away at it.