Iraq:Amid growing Iraqi criticism of the findings of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), 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 Baker/ISG report claimed the problems with Iraq's police - poor organisation and training, corruption, sectarian divisions and infiltration by militias - are 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 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 was unworkable and unrealistic."
He claimed the ISG 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 crucial to reducing support for armed militias.
Despite a lack of equipment and training, the fledgling Iraqi army has remained largely free of infiltration by the militia and sectarian tensions rife in the police. However, forcing the defence ministry and the army into a policing role 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, 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."
- (Additional reporting by Salaam Jihad)