12.1 |
Security Sector Reform
499.
Former ACC
White told the Inquiry that that report and request caused
some
controversy
when they were briefed to CPA and IPU staff in Baghdad, as they
were
considered
to be inconsistent with the new ‘MOI 60/90 day Strategic Plan’ of
which
DCC White
had had no sight.443
The request
for 91 police officers was subsequently
withdrawn
pending further direction from CPA Baghdad.
500.
On 4
September, DCC White submitted a reduced bid for 43 UK police
officers
to support
his work in MND(SE).
501.
The Iraq
Security Action Plan, produced by the IPU for the Iraq Senior
Officials
Group in
September 2003, recorded that “in the absence of a central
[policing] strategy,
we are
pursuing regional options”.444
502.
DCC White had
submitted a proposal to re‑establish the Regional Police
Training
Academy
(RPTA) at az‑Zubayr to the south of Basra, to be staffed by 21
international
staff (see
Box, ‘Police training academies’, earlier in this Section). Plans
to train Iraqi
officers in
Hungary had fallen through, but three potential training sites had
been
identified
in Jordan, with facilities for up to 3,000 recruits.
503.
The IPU
recommended that DCC Brand should clear the UK’s concept for
the
RPTA with
the CPA and MOI; that it should be funded; and that its timetable
should be
accelerated.
Twenty‑one UK officers were expected to be deployed to the
Academy
by the end
of December. The IPU was confident that it could offer 100 officers
to work
in a
training facility in a third country by the end of October, but
needed to lobby the
Jordanians
for access to such facilities.
504.
Ministers
discussed policing at the AHMGIR on 18 September.445
The
Annotated
Agenda for
the meeting described plans to develop the RPTA, stating that “a
separate
deployment
of 20 UK police trainers, who will require firearms training, will
be required”.
That
deployment would require the formal approval of ACPO and the Home
Office.446
505.
Ministers
“endorsed the plans for police training outlined in the Annotated
Agenda
and agreed
that they should be implemented as swiftly as possible with
whatever UK
506.
In September,
a cross‑Whitehall project team was created to oversee
the
development
of the Basra and Jordan training academies.448
The Iraq
Police Training
Project
Team was based in the FCO and was led by Mr Neil Crompton,
Head of the IPU.
443
Statement,
20 June 2010, pages 22‑24.
444
Paper IPU,
8 September 2003, ‘Iraq: Security Action Plan’.
445
Minutes, 18
September 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
446 Annotated
Agenda, 18 September 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
447
Minutes, 18
September 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
448
Minute FCO,
12 September 2003, ‘Iraq: Third Country Training Plan’;
Minute FCO,
18 September 2003,
‘Iraq:
Police Training: Update: 18 September’.
165