The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1177.
Acting
Assistant Chief Constable Michael Colbourne became the Chief
Police
Adviser in
autumn 2006. In his bi‑weekly report on 31 May 2007, he wrote that
Prime
Minister
Maliki had passed an order permitting the creation of Police
Support Units,
attempting
to win the allegiance of “middle of the road
militias”.1107
Members of
a Police
Support
Unit were paid 75 percent of a policeman’s wage and were provided
with
uniforms.
They were not armed as Mr Maliki reportedly believed that they
had “enough
weapons of
their own”. The new units did not receive the full basic recruit
training and
were
expected to be in place for a maximum of 18 months.
1178.
In his
bi‑weekly report on 18 June, ACC Colbourne wrote that Police
Support
Units had
been created “in the usual rushed and hurried way”.1108
He
commented:
“The Iraqis
are not on board with this and our MOI counterparts are opposed to
it.
“The
reputation of the police as a whole may be badly damaged by the
arming of
the militia
and calling them policemen. The MOI are not equipped to undertake
yet
another
‘good idea’ that the coalition is trying to push
through.”
1179.
ACC Colbourne
suggested that the Police Support Units could be moved
under
the IMOD’s
control and trained as a “National Guard”: “There are many
positives to
separating
this from the MOI and putting it under the [Iraqi]
MOD.”
1180.
On 14 June,
Mr Banner reported to Mr Blair:
“The US are
… focused on the Anbar model, but this is creating real tension
with
Maliki.
Violence continues to be down in Anbar, but the motivations of the
tribes
remain
unclear, and they continue to express their opposition to the
Government
of Iraq.
Nor do they tie in to any convincing, wider, Sunni leadership …
Maliki
is … coming
under pressure from other Shia over the creation of a
well‑armed
Sunni
militia, particularly as the US now propose to extend the model to
areas of
Baghdad …
“The
Pentagon this week also released its now regular quarterly report
on progress
in Iraq.
This noted that overall levels of violence in the country had not
decreased
since the
start of the surge, noted that the GoI’s delivery had been
‘uneven’, and that
it had made
‘little progress’ on the political front – reconciliation was
described as a
‘serious
unfulfilled objective’.”1109
1181.
In an
interview with Newsweek
on 15 June,
Prime Minister Maliki said:
“Now, some
field commanders make mistakes since they do not know the
facts
about
people they deal with. They make mistakes by arming tribes
sometimes,
and this is
dangerous because this will create new militias … I believe that
the
1107
Minute
Colbourne, 31 May 2007, ‘Bi‑weekly Report of the UK Chief Police
Adviser in Iraq’.
1108
Minute
Colbourne, 18 June 2007, ‘Bi‑weekly Report of the UK Chief Police
Adviser in Iraq’.
1109
Minute
Banner to Prime Minister, 14 June 2007, ‘Iraq Update, 14
June’.
330