- Title: IRAQ: 150 NEW IRAQI POLICE OFFICERS HAVE BEEN SWORN IN AT SPECIAL CEREMONY
- Date: 16th August 2003
- Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 14, 2003)(REUTERS) 1. SLV GRADUATION CEREMONY; MV GRADUATE POLICEMEN SHAKING HANDS WITH U.S OFFICERS ATTENDING CEREMONY; MV IRAQI POLICE RECEIVING CERTIFICATE (6 SHOTS) 0.33 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN MICHAELJOHN SENIOR ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR AND ADVISOR TO THE INTERIM MILITARY INSTRUCTORS FROM THE 382ND MILITARY POLICE DETACHMENT SAYING "You can make the difference. The service you provide and your behaviours towards your fellow-citizens will be as much a barometre of the confidence of your country." 0.43 3. SCU POLICE CERTIFICATE 0.47 4. MV IRAQI GENERAL AHMED EBRAHIM SHAKING HANDS WITH U.S COLONEL TEDDY SPAIN, COMMANDER OF THE 18TH MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE; MV IRAQI POLICE WALKING 1.03 5. MV RAQI POLICEMEN WITH SOME AMERICANS PERFORMING IRAQI POPULAR DANCING; SLV CEREMONY (6 SHOTS) 1.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 31st August 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAD3DJJHTOOJHO7DV7WQYB173F8
- Story Text: 150 new Iraqi police have been sworn in at a special
ceremony in Baghdad
A special graduation ceremony was held in Baghdad on
Thursday (August 14) for 150 newly trained Iraqi police
who will be joining an existing force struggling to keep
the peace.
Their 3 week training, by US forces, included courses
in human rights and democracy as well as straightforward
policing and crime fighting.
Iraqi police under ousted Saddam Hussein were often
seen as a corrupt, iron-fisted arm of Iraq's brutal
dictatorship, overthrown in April.
Senior academy instructor John Michaeljohn handed over
certificates to the new recruits and told them in a speech
that they represented important models for the new Iraq.
"You can make the difference. The service you provide
and your behaviours towards your fellow-citizens will be as
much a barometre of the confidence of your country," he
said.
Police training began in the middle of June in an
effort to clean up the force's image as well, policing
tactics and fight the repeated looting and crime which has
ravaged the country's cities and undermined the US civil
administration.
Security has been at the top of the administration's
agenda ever since it took over in Iraq and US forces proved
unable to control looting and crime.
Only this week a senior oil ministry official said
sabotage and theft of power cables could bring southern
Iraq's oil industry grinding to a halt, strangle exports
crucial to rebuilding the economy as well as spark more
violent protests.
In addition up to 2,500 tonnes of oil products are
being smuggled out of southern Iraq each day, worsening the
fuel shortages.
And Saddam remains on the run despite the 25 million US
dollar price on his head.
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