Iraq to retrain police to weed out militias

BAGHDAD, Sep 18 (Reuters) Iraq's entire police force will undergo a month-long re-training course, an Interior Ministry official said today, under a plan American officials hope will weed out sectarian death squads infiltrated in its ranks.

Many of the sectarian killings that leave dozens of tortured and bullet-riddled bodies dumped in Baghdad every day are blamed on rogue police, fuelling Iraq's communal conflict.

Leaders of the Sunni Arab minority accuse Shi'ite death squads operating inside the 160,000-strong police force of carrying out the execution-style killings.

Shi'ite leaders deny condoning death squads in the police. But Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to rein in militias. Maliki, who took office in May, named independent Jawad al-Bolani as Interior Minister to reform the ministry after allegations of death squad collusion under his predecessor.

''All the Iraqi police will be re-trained and rehabilitated to increase its capabilities. It is a new order,'' Police spokesman Brigadier Abdul Kareem Khalaf told Reuters.

All police units will be gradually pulled out from the field and put through a month-long retraining course under supervision of US-led forces, Khalaf said, starting in October.

US commanders, who have privately voiced concern about rogue elements inside the Shi'ite dominated police force, say some units will undergo vetting, psychological profiling and lie detectors to purge militia members from the force.

A Western official who assists Iraq's Ministry of Interior and is familiar with the programme said the re-training will also include inspections of weapons, vehicles and uniforms.

''It is part of police reform,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

''If somebody is found to be tainted this person will be taken out of the force,'' the official said, adding inspections on pay records will also be done to stamp out corruption.

Building Iraq's fledgling police and army, disbanded after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, is a key element of Washington's plans for an eventual withdrawal of its 140,000 troops in Iraq.

While Iraq's 130,000-strong army has a more balanced sectarian makeup between Shi'ites and Sunnis, the police are believed to be heavily Shi'ite, causing distrust among Sunnis.

US officials admit that abuses by rogue police forces have hurt efforts to bring Sunnis into the political process. Sunnis, once dominant under Saddam, are now the core of an insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government. Maliki, hoping to defuse the rebellion, has included Sunnis in his national unity government.

Despite recent progress in cleaning up the police, the Western official said: ''There is still a long way to go''.

The official said sectarian loyalties run deep in the force.

''If somebody blows the whistle there is always the danger of going home and finding his father dead.'' REUTERS PR RAI2054