Tuesday, October 03, 2006
U.S. - hard to control intimidation of police officers
Security
Efforts to halt sectarian violence in Iraq have been thwarted, in part, because Shiite Muslim militiamen and the politicians who support them routinely intimidate members of Iraq's nascent police force into allowing the militias to control the streets, according to a top U.S. military official, Iraqi politicians and Iraqi police officials. The intimidation of police officers and their commanders is as big a threat to the police's ability to stop murders and kidnappings as the infiltration of the police force by Shiite militiamen, the U.S. military official said. Intimidation is a tougher problem because it can't be addressed by plucking infiltrators from the police department, the official said. U.S. officials have warned that the militias pose a bigger threat to Iraq's stability than Sunni insurgents, and they've pressured Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to root out militia members from the police force.
But U.S. officials say intimidation is a separate problem, one they don't know how to fix. More police officers are being threatened by militia members to look the other way — and they do so rather than risk retaliation. In the meantime, police officers say the threat of intimidation is heightened by their sense that the government can do little to protect them. In many Baghdad neighborhoods, Shiite militiamen, especially members of the Mahdi army, are the only security visible on the streets. Police feel obligated to the militiamen for their protection as well as for the safety of their homes and families in neighborhoods where the government cannot muster enough forces to stop attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents.
But U.S. officials say intimidation is a separate problem, one they don't know how to fix. More police officers are being threatened by militia members to look the other way — and they do so rather than risk retaliation. In the meantime, police officers say the threat of intimidation is heightened by their sense that the government can do little to protect them. In many Baghdad neighborhoods, Shiite militiamen, especially members of the Mahdi army, are the only security visible on the streets. Police feel obligated to the militiamen for their protection as well as for the safety of their homes and families in neighborhoods where the government cannot muster enough forces to stop attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents.
