(New York, January 8, 2007) – Any new US plan for Iraq will fail to provide security for Iraqis unless it dismantles militias that have terrorized the civilian population, Human Rights Watch said today. The militias have operated as quasi-independent security forces under the protection of the Ministry of Interior, abducting, torturing and killing hundreds of people every month and dumping mutilated corpses in public areas.
"President Bush's new Iraq plan shifts the focus to protecting civilians, but Iraqis, whether Shi'a or Sunni, won't be safe until the government puts an end to militia 'death squads'," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.The United States has highlighted key features of its new plan for Iraq, to be unveiled in a speech by President George W Bush on January 10. It includes a significant "surge" in US troop levels. The administration says that US forces will now focus on protecting the Sunni population from attack. The plan also includes a series of "benchmarks" for the Iraqi government, some specifically designed to address the sectarian strife in the country, such as provincial elections to enhance Sunni political participation and the disbursement of oil revenues and development projects in Sunni areas.Human Rights Watch said the most important benchmark the Iraqi government needs to meet is to establish control over its Ministry of Interior and end its ties to armed militias, including the Mahdi Army and Badr Forces."It's not clear whether the ministry controls the militias or the militias control the ministry, but either way, they're responsible for some of the worst abuses in Iraq today," Whitson said.The Ministry of Interior's security forces are believed to be responsible for numerous sectarian killings, operating "death squads" in Baghdad and other provinces. As previously documented by Human Rights Watch, government security forces have been implicated in direct participation or complicity in scores of execution-style killings and torture of Sunni men.Since the official end of the US military occupation in June 2004, successive Iraqi governments have failed to address seriously the continuing human rights abuses perpetrated by its security forces, including arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without due process, and widespread torture. "The Iraqi government needs to show that it will protect all Iraqis, no matter who they are, and prosecute anyone abusing civilians," Whitson said. In addition, the government must implement policies to properly vet and train police recruits and establish monitoring and accountability mechanisms. To date, the Ministry of Interior has been given wide powers to combat violent crime in the country, but with virtually no oversight of its conduct. Following numerous reports of abuse at Ministry of Interior detention facilities, the government privately investigated the instances, but failed to make its findings public, and has obstructed criminal proceedings against alleged perpetrators."The Iraqi people won't be safe, however many troops the US sends in, unless the Iraqi forces end their abuses," said Whitson.
