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News from the Christian Science Monitor, June 1, 2005

World > Terrorism & Security
posted June 1, 2005, updated 12:00 p.m.

'Peaceful' Basra now out of control?

Iraqi police chief say at least 50 percent of his force has been infiltrated by sectarian militias.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com


On the very day that President George W. Bush was telling members of the media that he is pleased with the progress in Iraq, the chief of police in Basra, Iraq - long considered a much safer city than Baghdad - said that "he has lost control of 75 percent of his officers" and that "sectarian militias" had infiltrated his force.
The Guardian reported Tuesday that General Hassan al-Sade said sectarian militias "are using their posts to assassinate opponents."

General Sade said half of his 13,750-strong force were secretly working for political parties and that some officers were involved in ambushes. Other officers were politically neutral but had no interest in policing and did not follow his orders. "I trust 25 per cent of my force, no more," he said.





The Guardian report noted that Basra is still a "relatively peaceful" city, but Sade says that peace has been bought "by ceding authority to conservative Islamic parties and turning a blind eye to their militias's corruption scams and hit squads."

Sade pointed to a recent well-publicized incident where members of the ultra-religious Mahdi Army, which is loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, attacked unversity students at a picnic while the police stood by and watched. Sade said he had identified the officers involved but did not punish them "for fear of upsetting the militias."

In April Knight-Ridder reported on how political instabililty in Iraq was leading to the formation of local militias. The New York Times reported last Friday on the rise in sectarian killings in Iraq, many of which are believed to have been carried out by rival Sunni and Shiite militias.

Newsday also reported last week that sectarian violence "now threatens to drag Iraq into civil war."

Colin Smith, the senior British police adviser in Iraq, told the Guardian that the development of a police force in Basra had actually gone quite well in the past two years, but cautioned that it was a "five to ten year" project. He also said a major problem was that US and British trainers too often gave the Iraqis "plans that don't work."

For example police stations were given expensive cameras to photograph suspects without heed to the Iraqis' difficulty in replacing the batteries, said Mr Smith. "A lot of the time we're not moving forward but rectifying the mistakes made in the past two years."
The Christian Science Monitor reports on how the US is "eager to show" that Iraq's own troops can fight back against the insurgents. The BBC reports, however, that Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said he is worried that the US will pullout of Iraq before "local troops are able to maintain security."

Also increasing sectarian tensions was the the mistaken arrest of a leading moderate Sunni politician. The Daily Telegraph reports that US troops fired stun grenades before they entered the home of Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, leader of the largest Sunni political party in Iraq.

Mr. Abdul-Hamid, his three sons and four body guards were forced to lie on the ground for an hour. Hamid said one Marine stood with a "foot on his neck" for 20 minutes. Abdul-Hamid wife said an American soldier screamed at her in Arabic "This is what happens to those who boycotted the election."

Abdul-hamid's party had been the main Sunni party interested in participating in the January elections, but pulled out saying it feared violence would lead to inaccurate results.

Tuesday the US military said that "it was determined he was arrested by mistake and released" after being detained for 10 hours. The military said it regretted the incident, but stopped short of apologizing for it.

The Daily Telegraph reports Abdul-Hamid is a moderate in favor of Sunnis becoming part of the Iraqi government and that "a number of Sunni politicians and religious leaders have been accused of links to Iraq's insurgency - but never Mr. Abdul-Hamid." He had also served as one of the rotating presidents in Iraq's interim government

Reuters reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has ordered an investigation into the detention. The Los Angeles Times reports that Abdul-Hamid himself called on Sunnis to participate in the new Iraqi government. He said he would not allow his "extremely aggressive and humiliating" arrest to become a reason for sectarian violence to worsen.




Also...
• May a deadly month for US troops (Knight Ridder)
• Friends describe terror suspect as well-known New York musician (Knight Ridder)
• Fear of US attack forces N. Korea to develop nuclear program (Zaman Online, Turkey)
• Ya'alon: Israel to face terror war after pullout (Ha'aretz, Israel)


• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan

posted by Annamarie at 10:30 PM