Dangerous reality in Mosul

Colour-coded perception defies dangerous reality in Mosul

Jonathan Steele in Mosul
Thursday November 30, 2006
The Guardian


"Do you agree that security can be colour-coded green?" asked the US colonel. There was an awkward pause. The governor of Mosul, the deputy governor, and the police chief looked at each other, then focused on the piece of paper the Americans had handed them at the start of the meeting.
It was the day's agenda, with six items listed for discussion, coloured circles beside each one. Electricity: half yellow, half amber. Fuel supplies: red. Anti-government activities at Mosul university: yellow. Activities of the judiciary: yellow and amber. Reconstruction and development funding: yellow. The only circle marked green was for security.

The setting was Governor Duraid Kashmoula's fortified compound and a routine meeting with the province's American commanders as Iraqi troops ringed the building. The Americans had arrived in armoured vehicles. Khasro Goran, the deputy governor, had brought The Guardian from Irbil in a convoy of seven deliberately inconspicuous cars, beaten up Mercedes, BMWs and Toyotas, each with two armed men.

"Well, it's true the terrorists cannot stand up to the police on the street during patrols," the governor replied to the colonel's question, somewhat evasively. Then he listed two demands: extra fortification for police posts on two roads and the rescinding of an order for an Iraqi army battalion in Mosul to be redeployed to Baghdad.

The deputy governor decided not to beat about the bush. "I don't agree that security is green and people feel safe. Not one day goes by without someone being killed in Mosul." He added: "The terrorists are a hidden force. They go out in civilian clothes and threaten contractors with death if they start work on reconstruction projects. They kill interpreters. They hand out flyers at the mosques, calling for support for al-Qaida and the Ba'athists. On Thursday when I was visiting people they told me 15 families had been told to leave town. A well-known singer was shot in the street this week."

Mosul, in northern Iraq, is Iraq's second city, with a population of 1.7 million people. Yet unlike Baghdad and Basra it receives minimal media coverage. Car bombs and suicide attacks are relatively rare, but as the city's senior officials make clear, a more complex war is under way.

"Of course the army can do raids, but what we have here is a cat and mouse game," the deputy governor said. "We have 18,000 police now and orders to recruit 3,000 more. It would be good to have them as secret agents, in the mosques and at the university. There are 40,000 students and it's easy to recruit terrorists there. We don't want to be like the Ba'athists and violate human rights, but we need intelligence."

The American colonel conceded the point: "The second and third Iraqi army divisions [stationed in Mosul] are still being trained in intel. They're not ready yet."

Over lunch General Wathiq Mohammed al-Hamdani, a retired army officer who now serves as police chief, complained that judges were afraid to give convicted terrorists long sentences. New ones were being sent from Baghdad in the hope that as outsiders with no family in Mosul they would feel free to be tough.

Back in the meeting room, the police chief's mobile phone rang. His conversation was agitated, and discussion stopped while everyone listened and the American interpreter whispered to the colonel. The police chief finished his call. "A distant cousin of mine is linked to the terrorists," he said. "The police have just raided his house. One policeman was killed in an exchange of fire, another is injured. One terrorist was killed."

The security discussion was over and the colonel summed up. "We'll change the coding to yellow," he said. The US colonel embraced the three Iraqis. His officers picked up their M16 rifles and they all piled back into their armoured vehicles.

"Americans can sometimes be naive," Mr Goran suggested. "At least they now call it yellow. They're moving in the right direction."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1960216,00.html