'Paper' Iraqi police
just don't do the job By Ali
al-Fadhily
BAGHDAD - In a country with no
security and no jobs, just about anyone can work
as a policeman. "To survive in Iraq under US
occupation, there are only two jobs; police and
garbage collection," Baghdad journalist Mohammad
al-Dulaymi told Inter Press Service. "Unemployment
is leading many Iraqis to join the security forces
despite the risk involved."
According to
the Iraqi government, unemployment was between
60-70% over the year. But not even senior army and
police
leaders know how many have got
jobs as security men.
"We do not really
have reliable statistics for the number of
security personnel in Iraq," a general in the
Ministry of Interior in Baghdad, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told IPS. "There are at
least 1 million policemen who receive salaries
from the Ministry of Interior as official
policemen with salaries of US$300 [a month] and
up. But we believe that half of them exist on
paper only."
The general said there is
massive corruption in the ministry and that most
of the senior staff collude in faking lists of
personnel who do not exist.
"Why does
everybody blame the bad security on the police?"
Colonel Fadhi al-Rubai of the Russafa Police in
Baghdad asked IPS. "The whole country is being
robbed. A look at any ministry would reveal the
catastrophe Iraq is going through. We, the police,
are only one part of huge corruption."
"There are 1.4 million policemen in Iraq,"
Abbas al-Bayaty, a member of the security
committee in the Iraqi Parliament and senior
member of the major Shi'ite bloc, the Iraqi
Coalition, told IPS. "That brings the percentage
of policemen to people to one policeman for 27
residents, while the usual standard should be one
to 300. This militarization of Iraq is a big
mistake."
Even if large numbers exist only
on paper, they are nevertheless a massive drain on
the budget.
Moreover, there are security
forces other than the police, though the Ministry
of Defense refused to give IPS any idea of the
numbers of Iraqi army personnel. "Only the
minister is authorized to talk about it," a
general in the ministry, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told IPS. "And anyway, no one has a
good estimate given the tremendous chaos in the
ministry."
On the Ministry of National
Security, too, information is scarce. "The
Ministry of National Security is an arm of the
Iranian intelligence," Colonel Jassim Alwan of the
former Iraqi army told IPS in Baghdad. "It is
completely run by Iranian intelligence and the
al-Quds Regiment [of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guards Corps] under a secret agreement between
Iran and America since before the invasion and
occupation."
An Iraqi Intelligence Office
was set up by L Paul Bremer, head of the US
Coalition Provisional Authority which controlled
Iraq during the first year of occupation. This
office was meant to be independent of government.
The office, led by General Mohammad Abdullah
al-Shahwany, has maintained a low profile through
the years of occupation.
Shahwany, a Sunni
Muslim, came to Iraq with the US Army in April
2003. He was one of the strongest supporters of a
US presence in Iraq, and his office was keen on
bringing former intelligence officers back into
the service. But again, there is no information
available on the number of personnel and what they
do.
There are still other security forces
in Iraq. "There are special army units that work
together with the US Army without any authority of
the Iraqi government," Yassen Fadhi of the
Ministry of Defense told IPS. "These forces are
used by the US Army to conduct sensitive missions
like arresting militia leaders or raiding
mosques."
The recent Awakening Forces
formed by US forces from Arab tribes is believed
now to be at least 76,000 strong, with plans to
add another 10,000. These men are also referred to
by the US military as "concerned citizens". Most
of them are said to be former resistance fighters
who used to attack occupation forces but have now
switched support to the US. Men said to be among
these forces are paid $300 a month.
Many
local community representatives now want their own
"Awakening" forces. "We contributed a lot to the
security of Iraq, and we achieved in six months
what the huge armies of the Americans and Iraqis
failed to achieve in four years," Sheikh Hammed
Hayis of the Anbar Awakening Force in Ramadi, 10
kilometers west of Baghdad, told IPS. "We are the
leaders of the Awakening all over Iraq, and the
government must accept us as official forces."
The Shi'ite-led government of Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been at odds with the
US military over the formation of these local
US-backed Sunni militias. According to the US
military, 82% of the "concerned citizens" are
Sunni.
Many fear further deterioration of
security under current policies. "Power in Iraq
will soon be turned to tribal leaders," Sheikh
Ahmed Shakir of the Sunni religious group the
Association of Muslim Scholars Association told
IPS in Baghdad. "They [the US military] are buying
time with the tribes after they failed with the
army and militias."
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