Page 11 // Platypus Magazine // Edition 105 // March 2010 Worlds apart, but policing together 01 01: Sergeant Brett Swan with Australian Defence Force personnel Chief of Joint Operations Command, Lieutenant General Mark Evans and Commander Joint Task Force 633, Major General John Cantwell at the PTC he AFP’s experiences in Afghanistan show there’s a vast diference about what it means to be a police oicer if you’re from a country torn apart by conlict. Afghanistan is a country of machine guns and rocket- Members of the AFP living at stark beauty and contrasts. propelled grenades. Some Tarin Kowt share a room the size here are patches of lush green also carry side-arms. Merely of a small shipping container around watercourses and tracts surviving can be a with three other people. he of barren wasteland. Mountains daily challenge. room contains two sets of appear to rise straight from double bunks, but there are no desert plains. It is bone-chillingly his creates a unique training wardrobes or shelves. Members cold in winter but temperatures environment and AFP members who want storage space are soar during dry, dusty summers. stationed at the Provisional encouraged to build their Wild camels and goats roam Training Centre in Tarin Kowt, own with materials from the freely, and communities made Uruzgan Province, know that storeroom. Toilet and shower up of mud-brick homes known ANP recruits have much more facilities are in a separate as quala seem to spring on their minds than passing an building. Drinking water has to from nowhere. eight week course. he centre be shipped in because the local itself is a far cry from the AFP’s bore water is not suitable. AFP members stationed in training college at Barton this country of contrasts are in the ACT. For Australians, the diet can also struck by the immense also be challenging. Most of diferences between what it It was built by the Dutch the food is pre-cooked and means to be a police oicer in Ministry of Foreign Afairs, frozen in Europe. So, while Australia and Afghanistan. To and is supported by NATO, there is a café-style eatery begin with, there are dangers the AFP, the European Union which serves milkshakes and associated with being a Police Mission and the United hamburgers, on weekends the member of the Afghan National States Bureau for International mess serves a Dutch-themed Police (ANP) that cannot03 be Narcotics and Law Enforcement brunch of pickled herrings and imagined in a stable democracy. Afairs. All deployed personnel rollmops. However there is 01 are restricted to an inner always plenty of food and fresh Rather than walking the beat, compound which is protected fruit is always available. ANP oicers are responsible from insurgent attacks by an for running check-points02 and outer perimeter fence, but this For many Afghanis, hunger is a patrols in a country where does not provide protection common complaint. Australians insurgent forces and Improvised from the ine dust that seeps at the training centre say it is Explosive Devices create a into every aspect of Afghan life. not uncommon to see ANP highly dangerous working In summer it lies inches thick on recruits illing their pockets with environment. Instead of the ground and clings to hair, bread and fruit from the mess oleoresin capsicum spray and skin and clothes. In rain or snow to take home to their families. Glock pistols, police carry the landscape is transformed Recruits will often have multiple AK-47 assault riles, light into a quagmire of sucking mud. Page 12 // Platypus Magazine // Edition 105 // March 2010 01 servings at lunch, because it is as police oicers. hese are ANP must understand why they the only meal they will get to broken down into their basic need to uphold and protect eat that day. components because, unlike rule-of-law principles if there is Australia, the country’s recent to be any chance of ongoing As a result, some ANP recruits history has not provided a stability. he international sufer from malnutrition or other background of stability community recognises that health complaints. here are where the rule-of-law is a strong commitment to the few medical facilities available taken for granted. rule of law must underpin all in Afghanistan’s rural areas, training activities and capacity and minor illnesses can lead to ANP members are given development programs that are serious health complications. instruction in values, ethics underway in Afghanistan. AFP trainers need to take such and police duties. hey are issues into consideration during introduced to the Afghan In addition to this important the course. constitution and shown how work, the AFP also provides it underpins everything they practical training to new Over the two months, Afghan will do during their career members of the ANP. Recruits recruits are given a full overview as a police oicer. his is an are instructed in the use of of the skills they will need essential element of the work force, irst aid and human rights. being done by agencies such hey are also taught how to as the AFP. Members of the investigate traic violations, 02 03 Page 13 // Platypus Magazine // Edition 105 // March 2010 01 04 accidents and incidents of example, despite the signiicant “Knowing that these men domestic violence. One week of personal danger they face from are proud of what they have the recruit course is dedicated insurgents, six months after learned and the skills they have to irearms training, another completing their course, ANP developed gives me a real to tactical training and the recruits are still wearing their sense of achievement,” he said. inal week involves a series of full police uniform to work combined practical exercises. every day. “It can be a very diicult working environment, and It will take time for the beneits hese small but signiicant sometimes it’s lonely, even with of this kind of capacity-building achievements help to motivate good communications between work to low through the entire AFP members at the training Afghanistan and Australia. ANP, although there are signs centre. Superintendent Allan But helping the ANP develop that the recruits are taking pride Spencer spent around nine strong policing skills and a in their profession and the skills months in Tarin Kowt working good governance framework they learn from the AFP. For with ANP recruits. is important to the country’s future, and it’s an honour to be able to be a part of that efort.” 01: A footprint in the thick dust 02: Sergeant Brett Swan shows Lieutenant General Mark Evans around the PTC 03: A plane lands at Tarin Kowt in a cloud of dust 04: Snow turns the dust to slush 05: Amenities block viewed from the living quarters at the PTC 06: Aerial view of PTC. 05 06.