Iraqi Police

OVERVIEW

A part of the Interior Ministry, the IP at present functions on the local level. The Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, a branch of the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq (MNSTC-I), is responsible for assisting the Iraqi government train, mentor, and equip the Iraqi civil security forces, on behalf of Multi-National Force-Iraq . The team was formerly known as the Coalition Police Assistance Training Team, which was a branch of the Office of Security Transition.

The Iraqi Police have a complex structure. At its base are the "station police" (Shurta) who work out of police stations conducting basic investigations and other police functions. There is a parallel force, the "patrol police" (Nejdeh) who patrol the streets by car and respond to emergencies. The Shurta and the Nejdeh are province-centric: while there is a Deputy Minister of Interior for police, he is a civilian. Uniformed chiefs of police at the Provincial level actually run the Shurta and Nejdeh.

Within the "regular" police, there are also several national forces and specialist units. These include the Highway Patrol, whose task is to secure critical roadways, the Riverine Police, who patrol the Tigris river in Baghdad and elsewhere, and the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) who conduct high-end investigations (murder, terrorism, money laundering, etc). These units should not be confused with the Facility Protection Service (FPS), who are not so much police as licensed security guards for each Ministry (for example, the 'Railway Police' protect the trains, but work for Ministry of Transportation and do not have full police powers). These units should also not be confused with other paramilitary forces resident within the Interior Ministry such as the Commandos or Public Order Batallions.

DANGERS FACED BY IRAQI POLICE

The Iraqi police force has faced numerous problems since it was reformed by the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority after the fall of Baghdad. It has become the target of fighters from both inside and outside Iraq with many thousands of its force killed by a combination of gunfire and bombings by Iraqi insurgents, foreign terrorists and occasionally US troops. According to a compilation of reports by the website icasualties.org an estimated 4,250 serving Iraqi police offcers had been killed between January 2005 and the 4th March 2006. Due to the high unemployment levels in Iraq there has been a willing number of young Iraqi men willing to join up to do the task. Many have have died even before pulling on a uniform after being killed by both suicide bombers and suicide car bombs whilst at police recruitment stations .

The police force has also seen the infiltration of its ranks by insurgents of various guises and motives. With access to priviliged information, training and weapons they have used the force to their tactical advantage. Many Police Station s have been attacked, blown up had weapons stolen from them and at times occupied by those who oppose the Iraqi government. As a result, many police officers have deserted their posts, others took off their uniforms and turned their weapons on the US forces who trained them. For other Iraqis the perils of being in the force didn't stop once they left work. There have been dozens of reports of attacks on policemen and women whilst they were returning home from duty.

THE IRAQI POLICE AND ISLAMIC LAW

The Baathist regime operated under a single-party Dictatorship that had a fairly secular legal system. While the Personal Status Law of 1958 gave religious courts some authority over members of their own religion, many Islamic based restrictions on personal freedom did not exist in Baathist Iraq as they do in neighboring nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia .
Alochol and pork products were both legal, nightclubs did not have to be segregated based on gender, women were allowed to have public careers, and up until 2001 the only sexual conduct between consenting adults that officially illegal was Adultery , and Incest . In 2001, the Baathist regime amended the criminal code to make homosexuality, adultery, rape and prostitution capital crimes.

The fall of the Baathist regime and the legalization of the various Iraqi opposition political parties, the liberalization of laws concerning freedom of religion and speech, along with ongoing violence and chaos has given an opportunity for Islamic fundamentalist insurgents and political parties to harass, even murder Iraqi businesses and citizens that violate Islamic mores religious ceremonies .

Some Iraqi Muslim clerics have openly called for the greater intergration of fundamentalist Islamic law in Iraq, and the current Iraqi Constitution provides that no law or right shall exist that violates Islamic morality Moqtada al-Sadr Islam .

The powerful Supreme Council For The Islamic Revolution In Iraq has been linked to the harassment and beating of Iraqis that sell alcohol, women that are "unchaste", and those people that wear western clothing or listen to western music. The Council's Badr Corps or Cell has also been linked to the "death squad" murder of gay and transgender Iraqis and as a result many Iraqi women and homosexuals are fearful of appearing in public as the Badr is enforing religious law [http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/03/shia_death_squa.html].

Currently, The Law Of Iraq is the Criminal Code of 1969 which contains several vague prohibitions against public immorality or indecency, but it would appear that the definition and enforcement of Islamic morality is being left up to various private citizens and paramilitary groups. Thus various news reports seem to suggest that both the Iraqi police and the foreign troops have been allowing Islamic fundamentalists to take the law into their own hands, and punish anyone they suspect of being guilty of immorality.

In Basra for instance it was reported that police guarding a local park made no attempt to stop an armed group from severely beating two women and then shooting dead a male Iraqi friend of theirs. It's suggested that the motivation for the attack was the mixing of men and women in a public place. In some instances it has been said that the armed groups involved in these and other political killings were actually police officers.

Iraqi police and foreign troops also seen to been ignoring the actions taken by the Supreme Council For The Islamic Revolution In Iraq 's " Badr Brigade " to engage in death marches against Iraqi gay and transgender citizens. For more information on this topic see Gay Rights In Iraq .

IRAQI POLICE AND THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT

The Iraqi Government has also been accused of using (or tolerating) the police and other groups to carry out sectarian killings and kidnappings of Sunni Iraqis. In December 2005 the Iraqi Interior Ministry found itself the centre of attention when US troops found 170 prisoners being held in a Baghdad ministry building. Twelve of the prisoners were reportedly showing signs of serious torture and many other signs of malnourishment. It was reported that Police Commando's had been responsible for some of the prisoners.

This story only served to lend weight to the accusations and sew more distrust of the police force. A report into the findings at the building was promised by Iraqi President Ibrahim Jaafari at the end of December 2005 but as of the 4th May 2006 no report has been issued.
It's is also the case that groups infiltrating the Iraqi police have stolen uniforms and carried out kidnappings and killings whilst dressed as police. When you combine these actions with those of members of the police force carrying out killings outside their own code of conduct it is often very difficult to identify exactly who is responsible.

The Iranian trained 'Badr Brigade' , an armed wing of the Shia SCIRI party, had long being suspected by Sunni's as being backed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in carrying out attacks on Sunni Iraqis, along with homosexuals and "unchaste" women. In 2006 News reports have stated the Badr Brigade has stepped up its "death marches" of "immoral" Iraqis after the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani issued a Fatwa calling for the death of Sunni Muslims and homosexuals.

NUMBER OF SERVING IRAQI POLICE OFFICERS

The actual number of police is notoriously hard to gauge, since local police chiefs may pad their numbers to get more funding for their stations, and people may drift in and out of service. The total payroll for the Ministry of Interior exceeds 180,000, and the number of police actually in service has been estimated at anywhere between 79,000-140,000.

ARMAMENT, UNIFORMS, AND LIVERY

Weapons carried by IP personnel include sedans, pickup trucks, and SUVs, along with various other vehicles like four-wheel-drive " Technical " Nissan Pickup Truck s provided by the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team.

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Iraqi Police