12.1 |
Security Sector Reform
paper.23
The first
suggested agenda item was security. “Key issues” for
discussion
included:
“•
how to
dismantle Iraq’s secret security agencies, and to handle the
defeated
armed
forces?
•
how to
provide legitimate and transparent law and order, and the necessary
civil
structures
to deliver them?
•
the
co‑operation of the Iraqi police …
•
longer‑term
Security Sector Reform and DDR planning.”
30.
Reporting to
Mr Straw after the talks, Mr Edward Chaplin, FCO Director
Middle
East and
North Africa, said that the exchanges had gone “better than
expected”, but
also
explained that “as we suspected, apart from on humanitarian relief
and immediate
post‑conflict
reconstruction, the US have not yet made much progress on a lot of
the
31.
No discussion
of SSR was recorded in reports of the Washington talks to
Ms Clare
Short,
International Development Secretary, or Mr Geoff Hoon, the
Defence Secretary.25
Neither was
it referred to in the reporting telegram from the
Embassy.
32.
An FCO
official who attended the talks reported to Mr Dominick
Chilcott in the
Middle East
Department that the “key message” was that Mr Donald
Rumsfeld,
US
Secretary of Defense, had ordered his staff to plan both the
military and civil
administration
of Iraq, and that this work was “going ahead fast, whether we like
it
or not”.26
Plans were
expected to be signed off in about a week’s time. Once
that
had happened,
the official judged that it would be “very difficult to reverse
what
had been decided”.
33.
Following the
talks, Mr Drummond proposed that six working groups should
be
established
to “pursue issues which require further planning”.27
None of
those groups
were tasked
to consider planning for SSR.
23
Letter
Brenton to Abrams, 16 January 2003, ‘US/UK/Australia Trilateral
Talks on Iraq: 22 January 2003’.
24
Minute
Chaplin to Secretary of State [FCO], 22 January 2003, ‘Iraq:
‘Day‑After’ Issues’.
25
Minute
Chaplin to Secretary of State [FCO], 22 January 2003, ‘Iraq:
‘Day‑After’ Issues’; Telegram 89
Washington
to FCO London, 23 January 2003, ‘Iraq: US/UK/Australia
Consultations on Day After Issues:
22 January
2003’; Minute Lee to PS/Secretary of State [MOD], 23 January 2003,
‘Aftermath: Visit to
Washington’;
Minute Miller to PS/Secretary of State [DFID], 23 January 2003,
‘UK/US/Australia talks,
Washington:
22 January 2003’.
26
Minute
Middle East Directorate [junior official] to Chilcott, 6 February
2003, ‘Iraq: PJHQ Meeting on
‘Aftermath’.
27
Letter
Drummond to Chaplin, 23 January 2003, ‘Iraq: Working
Groups’.
73