The Islamists who police Basra's streets

[Barrett808]

The Islamists who police Basra's streets
By Steven Vincent The New York Times
MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2005

BASRA, Iraq The British call it being "switched on" - a state of high morale and readiness, similar to what Americans think of as "gung-ho" attitude. During the 10 days I recently spent embedded with the British-led multinational force in this southern Iraqi city, I met many switched-on soldiers involved in what the British call "security sector reform." An effort to maintain peace while training Iraqis to handle their own policing and security, security sector reform is fundamental to the British-American exit strategy. As one British officer put it, "The sooner the locals assume their own security, the sooner we go home."

From that perspective, the strategy appears successful. Particularly in terms of the city police officers, who are proving adept at the close-order drills, marksmanship and proper arrest techniques being drilled into them by their foreign instructors. In addition, police salaries are up, the officers have shiny new patrol cars, and many sport snazzy new uniforms. Better yet, many of the new Iraqi officers seem switched-on themselves. "We want to serve our country" is a repeated refrain.

From another view, however, security sector reform is failing the very people it is intended to serve: average Iraqis who simply want to go about their lives. As has been widely reported of late, Basran politics (and everyday life) is increasingly coming under the control of Shiite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Recruited from the same population of undereducated, underemployed men who swell these organizations' ranks, many of Basra's rank-and-file police officers maintain dual loyalties to mosque and state.

In May, the city's police chief told a British newspaper that half of his 7,000-man force was affiliated with religious parties. This may have been an optimistic estimate: One young Iraqi officer told me that "75 percent of the policemen I know are with Moktada al-Sadr - he is a great man." And unfortunately, the British seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

The fact that the British are in effect strengthening the hand of Shiite organizations is not lost on Basra's residents.

"No one trusts the police," one Iraqi journalist told me. "If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump." Mufeed al-Mushashaee, the leader of a liberal political organization called the Shabanea Rebellion, told me that he felt that "the entire force should be dissolved and replaced with people educated in human rights and democracy."

(more)

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/07/31/opinion/edvincent.php

[NNN0LHI]

1. Moktada al-Sadr looks like a reasonable enough fellow to me

:popcorn:

[OKNancy]

2. This is a feature article, not breaking news

It will last longer in Ed and OTHER articles :-)

[NNN0LHI]

3. American journalist found shot dead in Basra

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO319180.htm

BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) - An American journalist and author has been found shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a Western diplomat said on Wednesday.

The diplomat told Reuters the next of kin of Steven Vincent had been notified and an investigation was underway to determine who was behind the death. snip

An opinion piece he wrote criticising the rise of Shi'ite Islamist fundamentalism in Basra was published in The New York Times four days ago.

The article critices the failure of British forces to clamp down on what Vincent described as a city that was "increasingly coming under the control of Shi'ite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream ... to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr."