Swine flu shutdown adds to Afghan police problems
(For more on Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])
By Golnar Motevalli
KABUL, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Facing pressure from top U.S. military commanders to pull themselves up by their own boot straps and reverse a reputation for being corrupt, Afghan police are now hamstrung by a swine flu outbreak.
The H1N1 pandemic has shut Afghanistan's national police academy for the next three weeks, a measure also imposed across all schools and universities throughout country as it tries to contain the deadly virus while the insurgency is at its worse.
"No one here has (the virus) yet, it's an alert. It's a force majeure, like when there is a disaster or an earthquake, we have to shut down," said General Sayed Mohammad Qudossi.
The closure comes at a critical time when U.S. President Barack Obama is being briefed on the extent of the police's problems, ahead of a decision to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan's, a chunk of them to train police.
Qudossi, who is in charge of 569 students at the academy said the closure would not affect training or the quality of his next set of graduates. (Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
