Spiral Of Revenge Killings In Baghdad

by Dahr Jamail

(IPS) BAGHDAD -- The authorization was in writing. Brigadier-General Amer Ali, the second most senior officer of the Iraqi Police had given IPS permission to interview officers inside the Asha'ab police station in Baghdad.

When I showed up at the police station, U.S. military police officer Schneider controlling the checkpoint at the front gate briefly glanced at the letter, then said: "The press is not allowed inside, so you have to call the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) for the information you need."

First Sergeant Smith, the public affairs officer for the military at the Coalition Press Information Centre said on phone that the Iraqi Police (IP) and not the U.S. military controls access to police stations. Then a Lieutenant Yarsh took the phone and explained that the United States controls the Ministry of Interior and the IP until June 30.

The IP spokesman Major Bassim Hamid said in response to an inquiry about this incident: "General Amer is the deputy chief of police, and he has full authority over his station." During an earlier interview Gen. Amer, Assistant Commander of the Iraqi Police of Baghdad, had said "our orders are that the Americans don't interfere with our jobs."

I asked CPA press spokesman Shane Wolfe how someone from the U.S. military police could override the written orders of Baghdad's Brigadier-General of the Iraqi Police. He replied: "I would just suggest you have the General meet you at the checkpoint. That will solve any misunderstandings."

Iraqis find this sort of disregard for their institutions and leadership deeply insulting. It leads even Iraqi collaborators with the United States to hate it. An email to Wolf requesting further information on jurisdictional matters brought no response.

U.S. soldiers occupy several police stations around Baghdad. And that does not make policing easy for the Iraqi Police.

Major Hamid told IPS that the presence of the U.S. military at the police stations increases the terrorist threat to Iraqi policemen. "The IP are targets of the terrorists, and having the military there makes it two targets now, on the pretext that they (IP) are part of the coalition."

Major Said, information minister for the Baghdad Iraqi Police, acknowledged that U.S. military interference with the IP is a problem. "The Iraqi people prefer us," he said in his office at the Ministry of Interior. "The Americans invaded our country. They are the invaders, so of course Iraqis don't like to work with them."

The U.S. military occupation of police stations is a particular problem, he said. "While the Americans are in our stations, nobody comes to us for help. I can say it would be better if the Americans let us do our work and stayed out of our stations."

According to a White House press release May 24, President George Bush said at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, that "our coalition has a clear goal, understood by all: to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations."

But the U.S. occupation forces' unwillingness to actually start handing power over to Iraqis is particularly clear at the police stations.

Senior IP officials in Baghdad have expressed great concern over security problems in the capital city as the handover of power from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqis approaches.

Violent crime in Baghdad is drastically greater now than under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Police officials say that shortage of equipment and funding, and the lack of independence from the U.S.-led coalition are hampering their efforts to stabilize the situation.

"We have three to four times the violent crimes now than we did before," Col. Adnan al- Rahman, public relations director for the Iraqi Police told IPS in his office at the Ministry of Interior.

Dr. Faiq Amin from the Medico Legal Institute (the Baghdad morgue) says more than 600 bodies are brought there every month, about four times the number before the invasion. This includes only "suspicious deaths" such as murders and people killed by the U.S. military.

"I am sure that not all the bodies that should come here do," Dr. Amin said. The lack of a more definite count is due to problems with the Iraqi legal system, he said.

Brigadier-General Amer Ali believes that one reason for the high murder rate in Baghdad aside from deaths related to the occupation forces, is revenge killings. "Our society changed from one regime to another," he said at the Baghdad police headquarters. "So there are many revenge killings now."

Gen. Amer believes that the struggle to control the rampant crime is complicated by lack of proper training and equipment for the Iraqi Police while under the jurisdiction of the U.S.-led coalition.

The Iraqi Police are not sometimes equipped even to defend themselves. "We lack weapons," says Major Bassim Hamid. "Because of the presence of the U.S. military, we are not allowed heavy weapons."

Gen. Amer says the training period for the IP has been kept short to eight to ten weeks due to the desperate need to have as many officers on the street as possible. "We continue to struggle in our dealings with terrorism and car bombs. It is very difficult to stop those."

The general said the Iraqi Police strength in Baghdad varies between 12,000-15,000 but that at least 20,000 are needed to deal with the high incidence of rape, kidnappings, murders and car-jackings.

"Before the invasion we had law and order, and people behaved better," Gen Amer said. "Now everything is smashed. We are in a crashed country."

As the security situation continues to degrade, recruiting new policemen is becoming more difficult, he said.

At the Asha'ab police station protected by a Humvee in the front as U.S. soldiers sat on the roof, 25 year-old police officer Ali Ahmed said (outside the police station) that he had been given eight weeks of training by U.S. instructors in Baghdad. He complained he had not been given a bullet-proof vest, but said he was happy with his paycheck.

"I couldn't find other work, and I always wanted to be a policeman," he said on his 20th day of work. He earns a base salary of $150 a month, with an additional $90 as hazard pay.

Another policeman on his first day at the job said he just needed the money.

The police have the confidence neither of the occupiers nor of the people. "We haven't seen anything good from the Iraqi Police," says Akhram, a businessman in Baghdad. "If the police were any good, they would be preventing these explosions from happening."

Rasool Ali Hussein, a 20-year-old working at a juice bar in central Baghdad said "the Iraqi Police here will be killed because they are working with the Americans." But even so the Iraqi Police are more likely to bring security to the country than the U.S. military, he said. "The Iraqi Police are the only people who can do the job."