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September 14, 2004, Scotsman EXPERIENCED HAND MAKES PROGRESS DESPITE CLIMATE OF FEAR AND VIOLENCE Gethin Chamberlain ANDREW Mackay began his career in the Hong Kong police force before joining the King's Own Scottish Borderers. His time in Kosovo, working with the advisory unit for security and justice and commanding the KOSB was significant in his selection for his key role in Iraq. Brigadier Mackay, who has been in the difficult post since February, is one of only two British officers assigned to the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT). It is a bit of a mouthful, he admits, but acronyms are not something that he has much time to worry about. Trainers were brought in to help the rebuilding of the Iraqi police force, specialists in every field. They started from scratch, identifying officers that could be trusted to command the new units, establishing structures, setting up police academies and even building the classrooms. Seven months into the job, they are finally tackling the task that they hope will set them on course to a fully effective police force: getting rid of the dead wood. In a room on the tenth floor of the ministry of interior, men are clustered round lap-top computers and sophisticated fingerprint scanners. This is the tool CPATT plans to use to ensure that it gets the people it wants. Every police officer will be fingerprinted and photographed for a new identity card. No biometrics, no card; no card, no pay. That is the plan. Each computer package cost dollars 15,500 and they will have 400 of them, paid for out of a dollars 13 million budget for this qualifying committee project alone. It is a drop in the ocean compared with the overall cost of the policing operation. Brigadier Mackay reckons he has spent dollars 1.5 billion since he arrived, the largest police training mission ever undertaken. The name of the committee was the Iraqis' idea; no-one could object to a committee which was only there to assess whether they were qualified to be police officers, though plenty have reason to fear it. Under the old regime, a police officer could commit a rape or a murder and walk back into his old job on his release from prison, according to Colonel Muhannad Amin from the internal affairs department, who is tasked with investigating police officers. Now they will be out. Those with a guilty past know they are in trouble; you can see their fingers shaking as they place them on the scanner, he says. And the system has one other advantage; no-one has any idea how many police officers there are in Iraq. This way, they should find out. Amin is unimpressed with the quality of some of his colleagues; too many are affiliated to political parties and others do not have any qualifications or training, he says. Another officer chips in: he knows of one police chief in the provinces who cannot even read or write. This surprises no-one. To train those new recruits who make it through the qualifying process, CPATT has established police academies in Baghdad and in Jordan. After an eight-week course, the officers graduate and are sent to their stations. For those officers already in the force, there are more courses; they can be trained to use information gathered from the site of bombings to track down the perpetrators, they can learn how to handle informants, how to deal with organised crime, or they can learn how to handle a crime scene. The latter is a particularly valuable skill; at the academy in Baghdad, bureau chief Kevin Clayton explains how senior officers have a tendency to blunder about, destroying evidence after pulling rank to be allowed in. On Thursday Ayad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, was treated to a demonstration of the new forces in action as he watched the new Emergency Response Unit running through its paces, blowing open doors and snatching suspects at gunpoint. Soon Brigadier Mackay hopes to have a similar SWAT team in every province. While waiting for Mr Allawi to arrive, he ran through CPATT's other achievements: two special police regiments with light armour, nine public order battalions, a dignitary protection service. He recites his mantra: organise, equip, train and mentor. In December, Brigadier Mackay is due to return to Scotland to take over command of 52 Brigade in Edinburgh. When he leaves, he hopes that he will be able to hand over to his successor, an American two-star general, a viable outfit. He believes they are making progress.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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