Defense vs Interior ministries

There have also been complaints about
checkpoint officers asking for bribes.
Parliamentarian Abusi recalled being
stopped at a control in Karkh, where
the security forces asked her and her
guards for some ammunition.

"My guards were harassed five times
at checkpoints even though they
carry [ID] badges," she said.

Widad Mohammed, a 50-year-old housewife,
was travelling in to Amman when her
car was stopped at a checkpoint close
to Ghazaliya, west of Baghdad. The
security officer asked the driver to
give him a teapot he noticed in the
car, but the driver refused, stating
that he needed it for his passengers.

The security officer yelled at the
driver and beat him over the head.

"He threatened to confiscate the car
as a suspect vehicle, so the driver
paid him off so as to put an end to
it," recalled Widad.

At nightfall when the city goes under
curfew, the number of officers manning
security posts decreases because the
risk of attack is higher.

"I was shot when our checkpoint west
of Baghdad was attacked at night,"
said Khalil Mohammed, an 18-year-old
national guardsman. "The
insurgents usually attack us when it
gets dark."

The shortage of men at night makes it
easier for insurgents to plant
roadside explosive devices and car
bombs.

The success of the security strategy
is challenged by the barely-concealed
mistrust and rivalry between the
defence and interior ministries.
Often it seems they are in conflict
rather than cooperating with one
another.

A source close to the defence ministry
told IWPR that the two institutions
compete to deploy more troops than
each other. This, he said, "has
a negative effect on their performance
and weakens coordination".

The source blamed the rivalry on
sectarian feuding.

Both ministries refused to comment on
how decisions are made regarding the
location and staffing of their
checkpoints. In some instances, the
presence of forces from both ministries
at one location has created problems,
and on occasion this has led to armed
skirmishes.

An employee of the defence ministry
anonymously said that last January,
fighting erupted between the National
Guard and a police unit at a checkpoint
when the latter refused to follow
directions given by the military.

Hussein Jasim, a resident of Ur
neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad,
recalled an incident in January -
before the security plan came into
operation - that suggested a degree
of complicity between security forces
and paramilitary groups.

The incident began with a convoy of
11 cars full of militants arriving
in the neighbourhood, and firing mortars
at other areas.

www.iwpr.net