Welcome
Federal Government helps fund salaries for Afghan police officers
Germany is contributing 30 million euro to the international Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA) for the payment of Afghan police officers’ salaries. The relevant agreement was signed today in Kabul.
Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle issued the following statement:
“Step by step, we want to pass responsibility for the security of the country into the hands of the Afghan security forces. That’s why building up the Afghan police is a high priority in our engagement in Afghanistan, one which we have further strengthened this year. The handover of responsibility for security can only succeed if Afghanistan has well-trained and appropriately paid police officers. Appropriate salaries play a decisive role in preventing corruption.”
An international Afghanistan conference in London on 28 January 2010 resolved that Afghanistan should have 134,000 police officers by the end of 2011. Germany’s contribution makes it the fourth-largest donor this year to the Law and Order Trust Fund, after the USA, Japan and the European Union.
The LOTFA was created in 2002 and is administered by the United Nations. It has a current volume of approximately 600 million US dollars. The funds are provided by international contributors and are distributed by the Afghan Government under the supervision of an external monitoring body.
The German contribution to building up the police force focuses on basic and further training and the construction and operation of training centres. After having contributed 50.2 million euro last year, the Federal Foreign Office is providing a total of 77 million euro in 2010.
