Jordan Times
Friday, August 27, 2004
Police cadets take up dangerous job to bring security to Iraq
MUWAQQAR (AP) — Iraqi police cadet Meqdad Al
Izzawi once served Saddam Hussein as a navy officer.
On Wednesday, he said he was taking one of the most dangerous jobs in the new
Iraq because he wants to serve his people.
“My hope is to execute the law in Iraq and restore stability to the Iraqi
people, because we never enjoyed security, even under Saddam Hussein,” said the
28-year-old Al Izzawi, one of 1,559 Iraqi recruits attending basic police
training at a desert camp. Like Al Izzawi, fellow Iraqi recruit Abdul Razzaq Al
Qaissi signed up for the new police force because he was incensed by growing
terrorism at home by insurgents and foreign fighters, including Abu Musab Al
Zarqawi.
“Al Zarqawi and other terrorists are a source of concern to my countrymen and we
have to put an end to their actions,” said Al Qaissi, 28, who served as a
soldier in the domestic security division of Saddam's dismantled army, guarding
vital institutions, like government offices and diplomatic missions in Iraq.
Al Izzawi also said he wanted “to combat narcotics because this is an alien
phenomenon to the Iraqi society and it never existed under Saddam.”
Iraqis are struggling to rebuild a nation ravaged by long years of UN sanctions
and later by the US-led war, which toppled the Iraqi dictator last year.
Iraqi police have become a special target of insurgents seemingly intent on
keeping the country unstable. Car bombers have targeted police stations. Last
month, a truck bombing of a police recruiting centre northeast of Baghdad killed
70 people.
US officials see potential in the emerging Iraqi force.
Robert Charles, assistant secretary of state for narcotics and law enforcement
and the creator of the training programme, told the Associated Press during a
tour of the same camp in May that the recruits were a “great exit strategy” for
coalition troops, especially when they take control of the security of their
country.
Last year, the Kingdom announced that it had agreed with the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq to train 32,000 Iraqi police officers over two
years. About 4,800 have already gone through the eight-week programme which
began Nov. 29, said Phil Galeoto, director of training at the Jordan
International Police Training Centre. He said the programme is meant to expose
recruits — the bulk of whom may have never had any police training — to diverse
issues like human rights, emerging freedom, changed status of Arab women and
Iraqi law. They also learn how to fire guns and search vehicles and buildings.
The recruits go through a vetting process back home, said Galeoto. While in
Jordan, special talent is identified and candidates could be enlisted to a
US-run academy in Iraq, which offers a more advanced programme that includes
training special police forces.
Training is supervised by 336 instructors from 15 countries, including the US,
Britain, Canada and Jordan.
The centre, 35km east of the capital, is a modern facility that includes
basketball courts, swimming pools, movie theatres, video game rooms and coffee
shops. An enormous dinning room can serve 1,500 people every 40 minutes. A new
bread machine imported from Lebanon can make 6,000 large pita breads every eight
hours.