12.1 |
Security Sector Reform
bribes to release
detainees and that the CIU were using force to beat
confessions
out of prisoners.
901.
On
Mr Abbas Allawi’s case, DCC Smith reported that a second
meeting of the
investigation
team had been held and one of the suspects had been arrested.
Two new
suspects
had been identified but it was “unlikely” they would be arrested
without MOI
support
because of the “instability” it would cause. A representative from
the UN would
be taking
the matter to the Minister for Human Rights and Baghdad to “add
more
pressure
for action to be taken”.
902.
Mr Fox
visited Iraq from 17 to 21 July.858
He reported
that progress was being
made on
policing, stating he “left Iraq believing the overall picture to be
positive”. He
explained
that DCC Smith was creating a link between the strategic and
operational
levels and
recommended he took on the role of adviser to the Deputy Minister
of the
Interior
responsible for policing.
903.
When in Basra,
Mr Fox had requested details from personnel on
achievements
against the
12‑month plan and on the next steps. Mr Fox’s report made no
mention of
concern
about corruption, infiltration or abuse.
904.
Mr Fox
described the GCPP‑funded prisons project in MND(SE), where eight
UK
trainers
had trained 250 prison staff, as having “established an independent
detention
monitoring
team” and worked closely with the US “to spread best practice
elsewhere”
as a “good
example of a small‑scale, low cost (£1.9m) project delivering
outcomes far
greater
than the inputs”.
905.
On 22 July, a
junior IPU official briefed Dr Howells that reports suggested
that
abuse by
the Iraqi police was much more widespread. Pressure should be
maintained
on the
Iraqi authorities to tackle the issue.859
906.
The official
wrote that Mr Abbas Allawi’s case had “shown that our policy
of
engagement
and strong lobbying can work” and “the alternative ‑ to disengage
and cease
co‑operation
– would only give abusers a free rein to continue abuse
unmonitored”.
907.
The official
advised that the UK should continue to lobby both in Iraq
and
internationally,
should ensure that abuse was on the agenda at weekly meetings
in
Baghdad,
and should push for a strong Iraqi Human Rights Minister. He also
stated that
there was a
need to increase police human rights awareness to overcome an
“inherited
ethos of
abuse and stifle any tendency towards sectarian victimisation”. UK
forces had
reviewed
their procedures for transferring detainees to Iraqi custody and
were in the
process of
introducing further guidance on protecting detainees’ human rights
but there
was no
specific evidence that the police with whom MNF‑I in MND(SE)
engaged were
abusing
detainees.
858
Minute Fox
to Sawers, 27 July 2005, ‘Iraq: Visit: 17‑21 July’.
859
Minute IPU
[junior official] to Asquith and Howells, 22 July 2005, ‘Iraq –
Abuse by Iraqi Police’.
261