‘Drink Main Cause Of Crime’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31727, 10 July 1968, Page 14

‘Drink Main Cause Of Crime’

Drink was the mother of crime, poverty was the father, and the mainspring of crime in New Zealand was drink, said Captain Farouk Barakzoy, of the Afghanistan Police, in Christchurch yesterday.

“Drinking alcohol is against the law in Afghanistan,” said Captain Barakzoy, a Moslem. “I am not a fanatic against drink. I have the occasional drink—but never too much. “As a policeman, I am against alcoholic drink. After being in Western Germany

and in New .Zealand, I think, as a policeman, that our law is right and .drink would not be good fdr our people.” Afghanistan was about three times qs big as New Zealand, had a population, of 15 milliop,, and a police force of 30,000, Captain Barakzoy said. , . ' .. ..

The police, were controlled by the Ministry of the Ip, terior and were not a paramilitary force. But they had to .patrol the borders, and half -the. police force teas armed and patrolling borders with Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran.

"The police in Afghanistan are responsible for customs, border patrols, security of national premises, including airports, all traffic, and, the

guarding of prisoners. SO they have many ’• more jobs than the police in New Zealand,’’ said Captain Barakzoy: Aged 31, he has been in the police: force for 12 years and hasd degree'of' criminology from a West German uni* versity. ■He can- speak)’ ’German, French, and English as well as the two native tongues every Afghanistan policeman must speak, Pashtoo and Daree. Captain Barakzoy said he considered that the police recruiting system in New Zealand was very good. He was studying the New Zealand police under a Colombo Plan grant The number of police officers in Auckland, which approximated the population of the Afghanistan capital, Kabul (600,000), and in Christchurch . and Dunedin, the population of which were similar to provincial cities-in his homeland, interested him. “The crime rate in Afghanistan is lower -than it is in New Zealand. The crime rate is higher where there is drinking—in Germany. the

United States and New Zealand,, for instance. “The.number of police is really a matter of economics. In this respect, your traffic should be-under ope ..control. In Afghanistan, police control the ...traffic, ..and.’, rIJ. lawbreakers. Here it Would be cheaper if one body controlled the traffic—the police?" Captain Barakzoy said. “The police and the people here are real gentlemen. Not that there are no gentlemen in Afghanistan. But it is so nice here, and the police and people get on well. Everyone likes the bloody Kiwis, as you say, and so do. I.”