Stockings, High Heels for Women Riot Police

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20041004/od_nm/riots_dc


KABUL (Reuters) - Fishnet stockings and high heels are not the norm for riot police, but this is Afghanistan (news - web sites).



Masouma was one of five women being trained by U.S. forces early on Sunday to cope with civil disturbances during the country's first ever presidential vote on Oct. 9.


Surrounded by nearly 200 men in dark blue uniforms, matching caps and black military-style boots, the small female contingent stood out with their colorful headscarves, lipstick, silver fingernails and gold earrings dangling under headscarves.


"We have asked our American friends to give us boots and hats so we have proper uniforms," Masouma told reporters during a break in training. All the women wore a blouse and a long skirt, but some had on stockings and high-heeled shoes underneath.


"They (the men) are well equipped, so we must be too." In an apparent breakdown in communications, U.S. Sergeant Damian George did not believe there was a major problem.


"The women expressed that they have been in high heels their whole life, and they feel they can accomplish the mission in those."


High heels or no high heels, there is a serious point to including women in the fledgling police force in this conservative Muslim country.


Men are not allowed to search women, and females are still under-represented despite new freedoms enjoyed since the fall of the hardline Islamic Taliban militia late in 2001. "We're trying to incorporate females into the police," George said on a field in central Kabul, as recruits in the background learned to handle their new plastic riot shields and batons. "We're trying to force the issue and get more females out there."


ELECTION SECURITY WORRIES


Islamic militants, many of them Taliban remnants, have vowed to disrupt Saturday's vote, and more than 1,000 people have already died in a wave of militant-related violence since August last year.


The election is a showcase for the administration of President Bush (news - web sites), who wants to portray Afghanistan as a foreign policy success story ahead of his own re-election bid in November as Iraq (news - web sites) remains volatile.


The U.S. military, which leads 18,000 troops in Afghanistan hunting Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas, says thousands of Afghans will receive basic riot training in time for the poll.


But with only three days' training, it remains to be seen if the recruits will be effective in curbing civil disturbances such as the one that broke out in the western city of Herat in September after the removal of the provincial governor.


At least seven people were killed in the rioting.


U.S. officers say they have drawn on the lessons of Herat, and want to avoid unnecessary casualties in future.


"From my point of view we will be able to handle anything," said police commander Mohammad Zia, as an Afghan trainee in the distance hit a U.S. soldier on the head with his baton, despite instructions to aim for the arms and legs.


Germany is leading international efforts to build an Afghan police force, and the Americans are in charge of creating an Afghan National Army of some 70,000 soldiers.