NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said suspension of the training of Afghan Local Police (ALP) is a unilateral US decision and it will not be introduced to other training operations by ISAF.
In an interview, the Rasmussen said the insider attacks are a serious concern for NATO and the screening and recruitment process of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are being reviewed.
He warned that the so-called green-on-blue attacks threaten to undermine the working trust between ISAF and ANSF but insisted that the trend of insider attacks do not reflect the relationship between Afghan and coalition troops. He called on the Government to take all steps to stop the rising trend of insider attacks.
The NATO Secretary General further said the alliance's plans to gradually hand over security to Afghan forces and pull out most troops by end-2014 would not be disrupted by the attacks, but the insider attacks will not derail transition process.
ISAF used to describe such attacks as isolated incidents. But now that it is dangerously becoming a trend, their top leadership in Kabul and Brussels are expressing serious concerns. This trend can undermine the transition process and overall ISAF-ANSF cooperation and trainings. Coalition troops are now armed 24-hours inside their camps, a step taken in the wake of increasing insider attacks.
We had been saying on these lines that the fault line is the exit-strategy rush with a rapid-recruitment race to reach the 350,000 numbers of ANSF before NATO withdrawal in 2014. The proper recruitment requirements and screening for ANSF have been compromised to make the quantity, not only resulting in quality deficit, but cracks such as insurgent and intelligence infiltration. Given the low recruitment percentage from insurgency-hit areas, the procedure has been relaxed, and without any proper screening.
The Government has said it is re-examining all members of ANSF to filter Taliban infiltrators. The suspension of US trainings to ALP will not affect the overall security strategy of the war and transition process. In some incidents, the members of police who have turned their weapons against American soldiers have been from ALP.
The recruitment and screening process should be strict and the process through Shura of tribal elders should be resumed, which was stopped after the project that established the local councils ended last year. They should follow the proper recruitment process applied for regular police under the Interior Ministry, with a shorter time span.