'Iraqi forces out of control'
2006-05-09 22:13
Baghdad - Iraq's outgoing interior minister, Bayan Jabr Solagh, said on Tuesday that the 200 000 security personnel not controlled by the country's ministry should be put under a single authority.
Solagh said most of the human rights abuses attributed to the Iraqi police and interior ministry could be laid at the feet of the various security bodies belonging to other ministries.
Referring to the country's interior and defence ministries, Solagh said: "These forces are out of control. In total there are 200 000 not controlled by the MOI and MOD.
"No one controls them, not even the prime minister."
In the past few months, a proliferation of corpses have been found in Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities believe the death squads responsible for these killings operate in co-operation with - or at least the tacit approval of - security forces.
Numerous stories of kidnappings and subsequent killings of Iraqis describe the attackers as wearing police uniforms.
Iraq's Sunni Arab politicians have accused the country's interior ministry of operating these squads to kill members of the minority community.
'They have the same weapons'
Ongoing sectarian violence has rocked the war-torn country.
Solagh said that, in addition to the 250 000 armed forces and police members, 200 000 others are guarding ministries, pipelines and infrastructure, or working as private security in the country.
In the case of the Facility Protection Service (FPS), which guards the various ministries and consists of almost 150 000 men, the equipment is similar to that of the police, he said.
Solagh said: "They have the same cars, the same weapons, the same uniforms as the police, just instead of 'IP' it is written 'FPS'."
He said he has discussed the matter with prime minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki.
Solagh said: "We have to control all these forces under one leadership, either join them with MOI or MOD and then we can control them."
Maliki said on Tuesday that an independent will head the interior and defence ministries in the country's new cabinet, to be announced this week.
- AFP