| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Basra police obeying militias' orders |
| 2005-10-10 |
| The most powerful and feared institution here in southern Iraq's largest city is a shadowy force of 200 to 300 police officers, known collectively as the Jameat, who dominate the local police and who are said to murder and torture at will. They answer to the leaders of Basra's sectarian militias. The militia infiltration in Basra's police force and government goes far beyond the Jameat. But it may be the most ominous example of the degree to which militias dominate Basra. The extent of Jameat's power became clear in September when British troops in armored vehicles tried to rescue two special operations soldiers who had been abducted and taken to its headquarters in a police building in Basra. According to three British soldiers there that day, 1,000 to 2,000 people rapidly gathered near the station, which the British troops had partly demolished in an effort to free the captives. The soldiers were ultimately rescued from a house nearby, where they were being held by Shiite militiamen. The British soldiers said many in the mob had been armed with homemade gasoline bombs and grenades, and that the attack appeared to be a disciplined and coordinated response to the sacking of the Jameat headquarters. Iraqi men standing on cars ordered the mob to attack, they said, while rioters clambered on top of armored vehicles and doused soldiers inside with gasoline. "This was not a spontaneous public action," said Major Andy Hadfield, a British company commander. "It was closely organized and closely coordinated by a series of agitators." Once a relaxed riverside getaway, Basra has slipped under the rule of fundamentalist Shiite militias and political parties - many with strong ties to Iran - that enforce strict Islamic mores. The city has only 2,500 to 3,000 police officers, while estimates of militia ranks have reached as high as 13,000 in Basra and its environs. In recent months, lethal attacks on British forces and others - including an Iraqi employee of The New York Times, Fakher Haider, and of a New York journalist, Steven Vincent - have shattered a convenient myth: that the Shiites in Basra would keep the city relatively peaceful, overseen by the soft touch of British forces. The rise of the militias also represents another obstacle to the goal of replacing U.S.-led forces with Iraqis. None of the regular Basra police stations are close to being ready to operate on their own, said Sergeant Major Andy Johnson, a British soldier who helps train the police. "Progress is slow and you are fighting against decades of corruption," he said. Even if the police and military units across Iraq achieve self-sufficiency, there is the added concern that they will disintegrate along sectarian lines when U.S. and British forces withdraw. "It's too early to tell" whether they will favor their own ethnic groups, a senior U.S. official said in a recent interview. "You don't necessarily instill a national identity in a military in two years," the official said. In the murky world of Basra's militias, it remains unclear how the Jameat emerged as such a powerful force. Officially, it is part of the Basra police, responsible for internal affairs and investigating crimes like terrorism and murder - a role that, other police officers say, allows it to operate with impunity. A British diplomat said Jameat commanders "manage to exert a disproportionate influence and a policy of intimidation against the rest of the Iraqi police service and against ordinary people in Basra." The diplomat, unidentified because her government permits only senior foreign service officers to speak for the record, said the Jameat had "the power to intimidate everybody" and "their crimes are the most serious crimes." Like many other militias, the Jameat is involved in a wide variety of nefarious activities, according to other Iraqi police officers and officials, from the killings of former Baathists, to the kidnapping and murder of political rivals, to straightforward criminal pursuits. The major difference between the Jameat and other militias, Iraqis say, is that its members act with impunity. "They consider themselves the No. 1 power in Basra," said one police commander, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution against him and his family. "The people who like to murder and torture come from Internal Affairs," he said. "They get police uniforms, police vehicles and police identification." In May, Basra's police chief, Hassan al-Sade, told The Guardian newspaper that militias were the "real power" in Basra and that he trusted only 25 percent of his force. Sade also said some officers carried out assassinations. Interviews with the Iraqi police, other Iraqis and British soldiers suggest several Shiite factions have strong ties to the Jameat. One is the Mahdi Army, a militia associated with the firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Another is the Fadila Party, which won tenuous control of the provincial government this year. Governor Muhammad al-Waeli of Basra, a Fadila member, criticized the raid on the Jameat as "barbaric, savage and irresponsible." One British officer said there were signs of increasing cooperation in Basra between factions from Fadila and the Mahdi Army. Another powerful militia is the Iranian-backed Badr Organization, an arm of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Badr group has fought violent battles with the Mahdi Army, and has also heavily infiltrated the police. The two British soldiers were abducted the day after British troops arrested the Basra leader of the Mahdi Army, Sheik Ahmad Majid al-Fartusi, on charges of attacking coalition forces. It is unclear how closely tied Fartusi remains to Sadr. On Friday, British forces arrested 12 more men in Basra, including some policemen. No one who murders British soldiers "should be able to hide behind their uniform," the British military said in a statement that noted that provincial leaders had banned the police in Basra from working with British forces. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #5 tw - that's right. They can't just report (sniff) that's for bloggers. They are so important because they are writers. Must take a story and make it into a gothic novel of suspense and mystery. Their favorite story line is that "underneath the happy surface lurks a dark and sinister plot". |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-10-10 20:09 |
| #4 Can you say: T.o.p ... t.o ... b.o.t.t.o.m ... p.u.r.g.e ? Very good, I knew you could! |
| Posted by: Mister Rogers 2005-10-10 17:32 |
| #3 But 2b, everyone knows NYT writers were the very bestest students in their journalism classes -- a simple who, what, where, when, how, why would be beneath them. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-10-10 12:04 |
| #2 Sounds like more of a condemnation of soft hat techniques used to former NYT acclaim. |
| Posted by: Clirt Slinerong7183 2005-10-10 08:00 |
| #1 While a very interesting article, I get tired of the typically overstated NYT doom and gloom. The most powerful and feared institution here in southern Iraq's largest city is a shadowy force Once a relaxed riverside getaway The diplomat, unidentified because her government permits only senior foreign service officers to speak for the record, said the Jameat had "the power to intimidate everybody" and "their crimes are the most serious crimes." strip away all of the unnamed sources, blather about how they are "the most feared", "shadowy" and "myths", etc and you are left with the real story. There is some corruption and sectarian killing going on. We are all shocked!! Shocked! In other news, somebody captured some British Spec op guys, who were rescued, but a mob was incited by agitators after the British sacked the Jameat building. It's your basic NYT story line: we've already lost the war, we all might as well go home now - these little brown folk will never be able to control their animalistic tendencies. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-10-10 06:41 |