Jordan Times
Friday, August 13, 2004
Seventh batch of Iraqi police recruits completes training
MUWAQQAR (AP) — Marching in dark blue uniforms to
the strains of their national anthem, more than 600 Iraqi police recruits
completed an eight-week training course in Jordan on Thursday, and prepared to
go home to restore law and order in their conflict-torn country.
The 668 new police officers were the seventh batch of Iraqi police recruits that
Jordan has trained since the beginning of the year.
Under an agreement, signed with the then Coalition Provisional Authority in
Iraq, Jordan is committed to train 32,000 Iraqi police officers within two
years.
So far about 4,000 police officers have completed the programme at this desert
camp in Muwaqqar, 35 kilometres east of the capital Amman.
The course includes training in riot control, self-defence and driving.
The instructors are police officers from Jordan, Canada, the United States,
Britain, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Kosovo, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Jordan is also training Iraqi soldiers at its Zarqa Military College, 27
kilometres northeast of Amman. About 1,650 Iraqi soldiers, including 50 women,
have graduated from that programme, which began in March under an agreement
similar to the police training programme.
The course includes fighting terrorists, riot control, and lectures on democracy
and human rights.
Last month, 13 Iraqi air force pilots and engineers finished a two-month
training course in Jordan.