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Baker report dismissed as unrealistic and
ill-informed
8.12.2006
Michael Howard in Erbil
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December 8, 2006
Amid growing Iraqi criticism of the findings of the
Baker-Hamilton commission, senior government figures
yesterday expressed bewilderment at a proposal to
take the police force out of the hands of the
interior ministry and put it under the control of
the ministry of defence.
The report claimed the problems with Iraq's police -
poor organisation and training, corruption,
sectarian divisions and infiltration by militias -
were so profound that only a radical reorganisation
would enable them to carry out their mission "to
protect and serve all Iraqis".
But a senior security adviser to the prime minister,
Nuri al-Maliki, dismissed the proposals. "Like too
many of the Baker report's recommendations, it is
likely to cause more problems than it solves," he
said.
"The interior ministry needs cleaning of some bad
elements, and we are doing so. Transferring the
national police lock, stock and barrel to the
defence ministry is unworkable and unrealistic."
He claimed the Iraq Study Group had included the
suggestion at the behest of Sunni leaders, who
charge the interior ministry, which is under Shia
control, with running anti-Sunni death squads.
The defence ministry is headed by a Sunni. Restoring
faith in the police among ordinary Iraqis is seen as
crucial to reducing popular support for armed
militias, which are causing so much damage to
communal relations. A recent poll among Shia
residents in eastern Baghdad suggested they looked
first to their local militias for protection rather
than the police.
Despite a lack of equipment and training, the
fledgling Iraqi army has remained largely free of
infiltration by the militia and the sectarian
tensions that are rife in the police.
However, forcing the defence ministry and the army
into a policing role it is ill equipped to handle is
not the answer, said Joost Hiltermann of the
International Crisis Group.
"It is important to retain a dividing line between
external defence and internal security," he said.
"What could also happen is that by importing bad
elements from the police you dilute and possibly
undermine those relatively good elements in the
Iraqi army."
The report, greeted with much fanfare in Washington,
received only a guarded welcome in Iraq. Yesterday
as the country's politicians began to read the fine
print of the 79 recommendations, the caution turned
to dismay.
"It is not surprising they
got so many things wrong," said Mahmoud Othman, a
Kurdish MP. "In the nine months it took to prepare
this report, they were only in Iraq for four days
and never left the green zone."
guardian co.uk
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