Meet the new Iraqi police cadets

Silence enveloped Baghdad’s police academy on Thursday as 2000 cadets filed into classes to sit a mid-term exam of multiple-choice questions.

Brows crinkled over ticklish selections, such as how to respond to bombs. You should: a) run away as fast as possible; b) evacuate the citizens; c) let the multinational forces handle the situation, it is not your job; d) all of the above are correct.

When the exam ended American soldiers carried the papers away for marking and the cadets stood in huddles, comparing answers.

Which boxes were ticked could determine more than just grades. Most of these young men and women in blue will graduate in three weeks’ time and march from their parade ground into the daunting job of policing Iraq.

Under new plans for an accelerated pull-out from Iraq, London and Washington hope men like these will increasingly move into the frontline to face down the insurgents, replacing coalition troops. In his state of the union speech on Wednesday night, United States President George Bush spoke of a new phase in which Americans would train ”more capable Iraqi security forces” to pave the way for Washington’s withdrawal.

Much hinges on that sample question. If the cadets’ real-world response to a bomb threat is to flee, the new government could falter and the insurgency strengthen. If they show initiative and professionalism, it could signal the development of a viable Iraqi state. If they summon coalition troops, it could dash American and British hopes of gradual withdrawal.

The cadets’ concerns are more immediate: staying alive. In the last three months of 2004 around 1 300 cadets and police officers were killed or seriously injured, according to academy officials.

”Every day we are being killed, slaughtered, bombed,” said Kalid Eataya (48) a senior instructor. ”A checkpoint with four guys was blown up not far from here and there was nothing left of them, not a fragment.”

Earlier this week Abid Asmae’el and 11 other cadets travelling to the capital from the south had a narrow escape when insurgents stopped and searched their bus. ”I stuffed my insignias and ID into the seat pocket, others threw theirs out the window.”

A dozen soldiers in the north were less fortunate: they were herded off their bus and shot. In a second ambush on Thursday, another two policemen were killed, 14 wounded and 36 were missing after an attack on a convoy south of Baghdad. At least a dozen civilians were killed in other violence.

The cadets live in the academy and during visits home wear civilian clothes. ”You don’t want anyone knowing your job,” said Shaima’a Mosa (25) drawing a finger across her throat.

Yet the academy, a swath of gravel, prefabs, concrete barriers and barbed wire east of Baghdad, is swamped by applicants. ”You and I would run a mile, but we have had absolutely no problem recruiting,” said Melvin Goudie, the institution’s Scottish director, a civilian chief inspector seconded from Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

He attributed the enthusiasm to a desire to build a new Iraq and the absence of alternative employment which makes the $180 monthly salary attractive.

After a disastrous 2004, when the police often seemed little more than bomb and bullet fodder and deserted en masse, there is tentative evidence of improvement.

Despite 260 attempted attacks on polling day, only about 40 people died, thanks largely to saturation security. US soldiers posted near Baghdad’s police academy credited graduates with having plenty of nous. The coming months will test that. Islamist militants and loyalists from Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime are expected to escalate the violence to try to derail the new Parliament, government and Constitution.

Since the March 2003 invasion the new police force has grown to 80 000 and another 40 000 cadets, aged 20 to 35, are in the pipeline, reflecting meteoric recruitment and training in Baghdad’s academy as well as smaller regional centres and one across the border in Jordan. In total 6 000 graduate each month.

American and Iraqi officials worry that the eight-week course — compared with three years under Saddam’s regime — is sacrificing quality for speed. Academy officials conceded there was haste, but said refined screening now ensured that only literate applicants who completed primary education were accepted.

By graduation cadets should have learned to march, have shot 200 rounds at a static target and absorbed crash courses on law and human rights. Question 24 on Thursday’s test betrayed the legacy of police brutality under Saddam.

”Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person is: a) torture; b) interview techniques; c) interrogation techniques; d) informative and reliable.”

Sergeant Clay Laughman, a US military policeman supervising the exam, admitted the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was a setback. ”We had to explain to them that everybody has bad people.”

One cadet murmured that the new police force had more than its fair share of bad people. ”Many of us still have Saddam inside us.”

Other questions probed penchants to take bribes, admire dictators, support military coups or discriminate against people on grounds of race, culture, values or height.

The exam over, the cadets lounged in the sun. The gunfire chattering in the distance, the black smoke swirling from another bomb across the river, they appeared not to notice.