Holiday best wishes to the SWJ community of interest along with a NTM-A/CSTC-A update via e-mail from LTG William B. Caldwell, IV (Frontier 6); Commander, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan and CG, CSTC-A. Here is an excerpt concerning the European Gendarmerie Force:
... On 24 December 2009, NTM-A/CSTC-A hosted a European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) Reflagging Ceremony to officially mark the activation and participation of the EGF mission within Afghanistan. Honored guests and speakers were: Afghan Minister of Interior Haneef Atmar, the Chief of the French Gendarmerie Force, General Roland Gilles, and the EGF Commander Colonel Jorge Esteves. The ceremony also included 24 members representing all of the EGF members in Afghanistan were reflagged by changing their national headdress for the EGF blue beret and under the NTM-A umbrella, expected to exceed 330 personnel in 2010.
General Gilles led the ceremony stating that the EGF is ready now and he expects more contributions from the EGF participating countries. The main priority is ANCOP training and mentoring of the Afghan Uniformed Police. Minister Atmar followed emphasizing the importance of using trained Afghan Gendarmerie type forces (ANCOP) in high threat areas, and that the EGF under NTM-A will play a critical role in training these ANCOP personnel. We then described the importance of this ceremony to be on par with the activation of NTM-A last month, and emphasized the importance of NATO, the EU and Coalition forces working as a team with the Afghan MoD and MoI to create transparent and trustworthy institutions for the Afghan people. Over 200 personnel witnessed this memorable event.
... the EGF is a rapidly deployable, multinational police force with military status. This organization was established by five European Union Member States - France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. On 17 December 2008, the Romanian Gendarmerie joined EGF as a full member. The Polish Military Gendarmerie and Lithuanian Public Security Service are contributing partners while the Turkish Jandarma has an observer status.
Currently, 190 Dutch Royal Marechaussee members, French Gendarmes, Italian Carabinieri and Spanish civil guards are deployed in Afghanistan under the EGF flag. Additionally, over 80 members are supporting the Afghan National Police training at Adraskan and Mazar e Sharif, and one of its major contributions will be its committal of nine Police Operational Mentorship Liaison Teams (POMLTs) to bolster the ANP mission...
SWJ note: On 8 December 2009, EGF officially started its operational commintment within the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan. The mission in Afghanistan is a new operational commitment for EGF assets, already engaged in the EUFOR integrated Police Unit within the framework of the EU Operation Althea in Bosnia Herzegovina. The EGF mission in Afghanistan inlcudes:
- Delivering experts to the NTM-A HQ/CTAG-P command structure;- Delivering mentors and training advisers to the Afghan National Civil Order Police;
- Providing Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams (POMLTs);
- Contributing to the develpment of pre-deployment training requirements and standards for the POMLTs.
NTM-A/CSTC-A - Official Website
European Gendarmerie Force - Official Website