EU Police Training

Efforts by the European Union to train Afghanistan's police are not going according to plan, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported.

Although most members of a 160-strong police assistance mission have been in the country since June, they have very little to do, the magazine said in its online edition on Saturday.

The report blamed the inactivity on the Afghan government's failure to name participants for the planned training courses.

The EU agreed on the assistance mission in May, the first time the bloc assumed a collective role in aiding Afghanistan's law-enforcement sector. It is led by German Brigadier-General Friedrich Eichele.

Instead of providing training and advice to criminal investigators and drug enforcement officers, many members of the mission are acting as mentors to police officers trained in earlier programs, Der Spiegel said.

Turkey block

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is supposed to provide protection for the 20-nation contingent, which is scattered across Afghanistan.

But a dispute surrounding EU member Cyprus and European bloc aspirant and NATO member Turkey has led to Ankara blocking an agreement that regulates cooperation between the EU and the military alliance in Afghanistan, the report said.

Another problem is the reliability of the police recruits, the report added.

Once they are trained, many offer their services to the Taliban, local militia leaders or drug lords, who pay much better than the government in Kabul, the report said.