Iraqi police rife with abuse, corruption

MEO

Ministry of Interior documents reveal police officers have been involved in abductions, murders, prisoner rape.

LOS ANGELES - Iraq’s police force is riddled with corruption and its officers have been involved in abductions, murders and prisoner rape, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday, citing Iraqi government documents.

The confidential Iraqi Ministry of Interior documents, which detail more than 400 police corruption investigations, were authenticated by current and former police officials, the Times reported.

They include reports of Iraqi police participating in insurgent bombings and releasing terror suspects for bribes, as well as selling stolen and forged Iraqi passports and beating prisoners to death.

Information in the Iraqi documents reported by the Times, which cover most of 2005 and part of 2006, includes reports that:

- A ring of Baghdad police officers, including a colonel, two lieutenants and a captain, stole communications equipment for insurgents, who used it for remote bomb triggers.

- A medic with one of the MOI’s elite commando units was fired after he was accused of planting roadside bombs and assassinating people.

- Two Baghdad police commanders kidnapped a lieutenant colonel, stole his ministry car and demanded a hefty ransom from the victim’s family. The two men were fired and taken to court, but it is unclear whether they received any other punishment.

- In August a female detainee was allegedly raped at a Baghdad detention center by the site commander. Two other officers allegedly tortured and raped two other detained women.

- In Diyala province, just east of Baghdad, Iraqi investigators were looking into reports that a police officer used a suicide vest to bomb a police station. Separately a brigadier general, a colonel and a criminal judge were accused of taking bribes from a suspected terrorist.

- There are at least four investigations into the deaths of 15 prisoners killed by police commando units.

A separate report in English by private contractors hired by the US State Department to help train Iraqi police notes that “the current climate of corruption, human rights violations and sectarian violence found in Iraq’s security forces undermines public confidence,” according to the Times.

Strengthening and training Iraq’s police and army is the cornerstone to President George W. Bush’s plan to eventually withdraw US troops from Iraq.