Daily Times

There are numerous heartbreaking and shameless stories about corruption, bacha bazi (child sexual abuse) and political/sectarian affiliations of the Afghan police force, which have deeply affected the efforts of peace and stability in Afghanistan. The Afghan president, police officers and military commanders have long been opposing the tactics of the Afghan Special Forces, which have never acted according to the law across the country. High ranking officers of the Force were recently found involved in illegal detention, bacha bazi, torture and their alleged collaboration with the US army to further humiliate the civilian population of the country. Three commanders of the Special Forces were recently removed from service as they failed to maintain the security of the capital amidst recent Taliban attacks on an air force bus and police centres.

On the removal of these three police officers, warlords from the north and south, in and outside parliament, reacted angrily and criticised the government for the humiliation of their colleagues. Commander of the 333-Commando Force, Commander of the Crisis Response Unit and the Director of Operations for the Special Forces were deeply involved in corruption, sexual abuse and torture of civilians in their secret prisons. In 2013, having been dejected by internal politics in the interior ministry, a commander of the police special forces claimed asylum in Denmark.

A recent report of the Afghan defence ministry revealed that the Afghan national army captured areas from the Taliban in various provinces including Helmand, which the greedy and hungry police commanders resold at the hands of Taliban insurgents and received huge money. On July 6, 2014, an Afghan intelligence officer confirmed to this scribe that some police commanders had established secret contacts with the Taliban insurgents and received lump sum monthly salaries. They sold their weapons to the Taliban and sold land and police stations in exchange for a huge amount.

The crisis of the Afghan police forces has intensified as they have not received salaries since November 2013. A police commander told this scribe that the police force had no option but to leave their jobs or join the Taliban ranks as their salaries had been stopped by the interior ministry’s corrupt officials. Recently, more than 30 police officers told journalists that the delay of their salaries in the interior ministry had cut across all the various forces, including the regular uniformed police and the village militias, known as the Afghan local police, which have well-documented problems with brutality and theft.

This humiliating behaviour of the Afghan ministry of interior has caused mental torment for the poor policemen. Poverty has forced most of the police officers to become involved in crimes like child abuse and theft, selling weapons, murder, kidnapping and rape. In Helmand and Kandahar provinces, and parts of northern Afghanistan, the police implicate civilians in fake cases and then they wait for the relatives of the imprisoned men to pay them money.

In the police bases in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the police officers have employed young boys, known as chai (tea) boys. They feed them during the day and abuse them at night. They are like prisoners. They cannot escape and cannot contact their relatives or parents. Many abused children in the police stations and quarters have suffered mental disorders and diseases. They are not shown to doctors and do not receive medical treatment, and therefore, several of them have died. On July 2, 2014, when I asked an Afghan military commander about the culture of bacha bazi in the police department and armed forces headquarters, he told me that the Afghan armed forces punish officers if found involved in child sexual abuse, but he admitted that the Afghan police is deeply involved in the practice of child sexual abuse. The commander defended the practice of child sexual abuse by the police officers and said; “Our police officers are serving in remote areas away from their homes, therefore, I think they should be…you know Mr Jalalzai, our compulsion.” Once an Afghan judge of the children’s court, Huma Ali Zai said: “Keeping boys means you have the authority and power; the more beautiful the boy, the more respect from people. This has been the trend unfortunately.” During the last three years, according to the Afghan attorney general’s office report, only two or three cases of bacha bazi have been registered so far.

Dealing with bribery demands from low ranking officers is largely part of daily life in Afghanistan but the police are now being accused of stealing from each other. The interior ministry is not willing to investigate these thefts. In Nuristan, Kunar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh and Herat provinces, shocking revelations of child abuse, murder, rape and kidnapping by police officers expose the true state of Afghanistan’s security forces. According to recent reports, three young boys were killed while escaping from police commanders who were sexually abusing them.

In 2013, the US State Department in its report said that sexual abuse of minors or bacha bazi is on the rise in Afghanistan. The report further notes that, “Although pornography is a crime, child pornography is not specifically prohibited by law. Exploiting a child for sexual purposes, as is done with bacha bazi, is also widespread but not specified as a crime under the law,” the report noted. On October 28, 2013, Foreign Policy magazine noted that bacha bazi is becoming a bigger threat to the lives of young boys. Sexual abuse of children by the Afghan police officers has become complicated as the government has failed to punish the corrupt officers. The judicial system has also failed to positively respond to this national shame. Corruption in the police department has become a major issue for many Afghans, eroding confidence in the fledgling local security forces as most US and NATO forces look to leave the country by the end of 2014.

The writer is the author of Afghanistan’s Future and Blueprint for Civil War. He can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com