Report Outlines Ethnic Discrimination in Iraqi Police Force
GMT 12-14-2010 2:47:13
The Assyria Council of Europe (ACE) have undertaken a fact finding mission to assess the ethnic minority representation in the Iraqi police force in the Nineveh Plains, within the Ninawa Governorate.
The Nineveh Plains has become the hub of minority migration in Iraq, with ethnic minority IDPs congregating there, an area where they were previously cleansed from during the Arabisation of Iraq; a campaign undertaken by the Ba'ath regime.
The Assyrian Christians, a dwindling and persecuted minority, represent the 4th largest ethno-religious group in Iraq, behind the Shi'ite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds. However, in the Nineveh Plains, they constitute the majority group.
Our recent investigation has uncovered data which severely undermines the integrity and diversity in the police force currently operating in the Nineveh Plains.
Being a locality where minorities such as the Assyrian Christians, the Shabaks, and the Yezidis are majority groups, they have little representation in the police forces charged with ensuring the security of the area.
In districts such as Tel Kaef, the Assyrian Christians have a considerable majority with regards to the population, yet only represent 12% of the current police force which is dominated by minority Arabs and Kurds.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has historically played a destructive role when any effort to balance representation and take on more local Assyrian Christians into the police force is made, preferring to employ their own party political guards in the area.
ACE have thus concluded that the European Parliament and its Iraq Delegation should:
1. Include language on the discrimination faced by Iraqi communities in the Iraqi police force in its official statements concerning Iraq.
2. 2. Raise the issue with its Iraqi counterparts
The Iraqi Minister of Interior and the authorities in the Ninawa Governorate should:
1. Implement the previous government order to increase the number of Assyrians in the local police force in the Nineveh Plain so it reflects the Assyrian population size.
2. Recruit a number of the current Assyrian police officers to become senior police officers in the Nineveh Plain.
3. Employ the same measures for the other minority groups in the Nineveh Plain
The Kurdistan Regional Government should:
1. Cease funding the illegitimate guards in the Nineveh Plain.
2. Withdraw all peshmerga forces from the Nineveh plain.
3. Stop obstructing the formation of a legitimate and locally derived formal police force for the Nineveh Plain.