Kabul. “Please enter, it is all right, here you can talk freely”, Karima, a police officer of the Family Response Unit in Herat, invites two women from Balk Province in her office. Slowly and hesitantly the young and heavily veiled woman tells her story. “The Police came into my house when I was alone and searched our home. Now my husband doesn’t trust me anymore”, she finally says and bursts out crying. “He is disciplining her’, her companion says softly when it is clear her friend will not stop crying. The two women in Herat are fortunate to be able to go to Karima. The office of the Family Response Unit (FRU) in Herat is one of the few places in Afghanistan where women can be interviewed by a female police officer.

Mazar-e Sharif.  To boost women rights for the first time on the district level and in villages in Balkh province, EUPOL Field Office in Mazar-e Sharif co-organised an USAID-supported two-day conference in Mazar-e-Sharif under the title of “National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) - Regional Conference North”. More than 60 female participants and a number of religious scholars and mullahs took part, and the outcome was encouraging. “Different counterparts decided to speed up women’s rights and to inform the civil society about them. It has been for the very first time that women will be enabled by NAPWA to engage at district level with the support of elders and Mullahs also in the villages of Region North”, says Col.

Kabul. Within ten years the Afghan National Police (ANP) is to become a unified, capable, and trustworthy civilian police service. This is at least the major aim of the new 10 year vision for the Afghan National Police signed on 11th of April by the Minister of Interior, Ghulam Mujtaba  Patang. “It is a major milestone towards achieving a long-term ANP Reform”, the minister said at the meeting of the International Police Coordination Board.

Kabul.The Estonian Minister of Interior, Ken-Marti Vaher, and the Chargé d’Affaires of Estonia to Afghanistan, Vahur Soosaar, visited EUPOL in April. During a lunch at EUPOL Headquarters, they discussed the developments of the Afghan National Police (ANP) with General Salangi (Chief of Kabul City Police), Colonel Samsoor (Chief of Police for District 9), faciliated by the Head of Mission Karl Ake Roghe and Deputy Head of Mission, Pieter Deelman.  An important theme was assistance to the ANP post  2014 in which in the view of the Afghan representatives mentoring should still continue.

Kunduz, April 2013. 150 young people ran seven kilometer starting outside the city area and finishing in down-town Kunduz. Most of the participants are active in different kinds of sports and from different parts of the province. This event organised with the Afghan National Police and EUPOL was meant to introduce the Police-e Mardume (community policing) to connect with the citizens of Kunduz. The run was watched by many citizens of Kunduz and was positively received. The presence of the police and their support of the run, was applauded and cheered when the youngsters ran through the different neighborhoods.

Kabul. “Observation and surveillance are essential operational tools of the wide spectrum of criminal-tactical law enforcement measures in order to combat Organised Crimes effectively”, says EUPOL Anti-Crime Mentor/Advisor Juergen Steinmann. It is the main reason the Basic Surveillance Course is part of the EUPOL training curriculum.

EUPOL’s Anti Crime Team delivered a three-week Basic Surveillance Course in three different training modules to eight Surveillance and Arrest Unit personnel of the Afghan Ministry of Interior. The training was conducted at the CTC (Central Training Center) in Kabul.