Build your own Iraqi police squad for a little cash

[almaty 19]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It doesn't cost a lot to set up your own death squad in

Iraq. Military uniforms, guns and even police vehicles are easily available to all comers in the markets of Baghdad.

In a city where gangs of men dressed as police have killed dozens of people and stolen tens of thousands of dollars, anyone with a modest amount of cash can set up their own fake squad.

At Baghdad's Bab al-Sharjee market, a haven for criminals, anyone can walk into one of about 15 shops selling police and military supplies and buy a police commando uniform for 35,000 Dinars (about $24) or an ordinary police uniform for $15.

No questions asked, no identity checks. Badges of rank from Captain to Major-General -- enough to ensure no one asks questions on the mean streets of the capital -- go for $2.

"One person came yesterday and took 12 full commando uniforms. Another took 15 army uniforms and ski masks with holes for the eyes," said Tariq, who runs one of the stores.

"I don't care who comes to buy them. As long as they give me the money, I give them the products," he said, adding the most popular items were police commando uniforms.

Although some uniforms such as a plain blue Iraqi police shirt are relatively simple for any tailor to produce, it was unclear where Tariq and others get the complicated camouflage uniforms from.

There are plenty of smaller items such as laser pointers for weapons, face-hiding ski masks, and handcuffs.

In a country awash with guns, almost every family has at least an AK-47, weapons are cheap and easily obtained.

HUGE TASK

It underscores the huge task confronting Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki as he forms a government to tackle the violence, bloodshed and crime endemic in postwar Iraq.

One of the critical tasks he faces is to clean up the Shi'ite-dominated interior ministry, which has been accused of condoning death squads who hunt down minority Sunni Arabs.

Sunnis, who have led an insurgency that has killed thousands of Shi'ites in the past 3 years, accuse the interim Shi'ite-led government of sanctioning militia 'death squads' over the past year, a charge the administration has strongly denied.

Many demand Iraq's militias be disbanded, something Maliki has promised to make a priority by drafting them into the armed forces. But the ease with which weapons and uniforms can be bought highlights how hard it will be to stamp them out.

Last year, for example, a Sunni insurgent group called the 'Army of the Victorious Sect' claimed responsibility for an attack in Baghdad using dozens of police uniforms and vehicles they said was aimed at officers of the interior ministry.

Criminal gangs have also used the uniforms of Iraqi security forces to murder and kidnap.

Head of the interior ministry's special law and order unit Major-General Mehdi al-Gharrawi said the uniforms were being used by criminals to stain the image of the ministry's forces.

"The clothes sold are bringing false accusations against us," he said. "We are people of the law, not street gangs.

"Today, the interior minister agreed to raid the stores that sell our uniforms because this must end."

He said within two weeks the police and commandos would also change their uniforms to a style that will be hard to copy, a promise they have failed to act on in the past.

Just a few kilometres from Bab al-Sharjee, at the Nahdha car showrooms, it is possible to buy the same vehicles the police special forces or ordinary police use for $12,000.

For an extra few hundred dollars, sirens and police markings can be added at the central Sinak market. Then it's a short trip to Mureydi market in the sprawling Sadr City Shi'ite slum for fake IDs.

Car salesman Abu Mohammed will sell a customer anything they want, including a range of bullet-proof cars costing up to

$340,000.

"There is a possibility some people buy these cars with violent intent, but we can't go around checking after them," he says. "Our job is to sell cars and make money.

"I can get anything you can think of, even an American Humvee if the price is right."

[I'm Gone 60]

"There is a possibility some people buy these cars with violent intent, but we can't go around checking after them," he says. "Our job is to sell cars and make money.

Now who said we couldn't instill our values on the Iraq people. LOL

Edited April 27, 2006 by mdyoung

[Jasman0717 9]