BAGHDAD // With Iraqi leaders looking to reduce national security spending, a senior US military commander has warned that defence cutbacks will endanger fragile security gains, especially in the restive northern city of Mosul. "The last thing to have a budget cut on is security because unless you have security, none of the other institutions are going to grow," Major Gen Robert Caslen, the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, said in an interview.
"You can't compromise security, thinking if you skimp on security [spending] you'll have the same security situation. You will not. These are crafty, intelligent, lethal and ideologically committed insurgent groups and you need all the support and help you have." Nouri al Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said last week that too large a proportion of government spending was being used to pay the country's more than 640,000 police officers and soldiers.
"Instead of allocating 74 per cent of this year's budget to pay salaries, we think that a big part of our budget should go to construction," he said. He called the current situation "dangerous" for the Iraqi economy. Iraq's deputy finance minister had previously revealed that although the proposed budget of US$70 billion (Dh257bn) for 2010 is almost 20 per cent higher than this year's spending, it still falls short of national funding needs.
Despite government complaints about the salary burden, the police force is still under-resourced - particularly in Mosul - according to US officers and Iraqi security officials in Ninewah province. The insurgency remains strong in the northern city and Iraqi army troops provide security in the most dangerous neighbourhoods because of the police's insufficient manpower. Gen Caslen said that the Baghdad authorities should write a blank cheque for the city's security needs.
"The other area Iraq must improve is the police," he said. "Particularly the police in Mosul and that's a decision that the government has got to make. They have got to resource. They are 8,000 policemen short up in Mosul alone, right in the heart of the insurgency. "Why they are trying to go on the cheap with police up in Mosul is beyond me. If anything I would give them [Mosul's security services] anything they could possibly use to get the police up to standards to be able to maintain security up there.
"You name it and they need it." The Baghdad authorities have indicated they approve of increased police recruitment in Mosul, but no concrete steps have taken place and no funding has yet been released, according to the US military. Millions of dollars in government funds earmarked for Mosul have also not been handed over to city officials, hamstringing efforts to revive a shattered economy and infrastructure.
Gen Caslen, who has been in charge of US forces in Ninewah, Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin - Iraq's most volatile areas - for 12 months, said continued progress, particularly in making sure the Iraqi army was capable of self-sustaining operations, depended on proper funding. Other branches of the Iraqi security forces have similarly warned they are undermanned and underfunded. Last month, Lt Col Rashid Hassan al Raskani, a battalion commander in the Iraqi Border Patrol in Ninewah, said his forces were inadequate for policing the frontier with Syria.
"We have a shortage of soldiers in the border patrol. We need an extra 700 to 1,000 to be able to do our job properly," he said. "And they probably need better pay. At the moment a basic border patrol officer earns about $420 US a month: it's not enough." Low salaries make it easier for insurgents to bribe their way past police checkpoints, with officers struggling to make ends meet from their official salaries.
With the prospect of budget shortfalls, there are also concerns that the sahwa council programme may be too hastily wound down. The scheme involves paying tribes, which once supported or acquiesced to insurgent activity, to instead provide security. Sahwa funding used to be provided by the US government but was handed over the Iraqi authorities last year. Since then payments have been missed in many areas of northern Iraq. Sahwa leaders have cautioned that if the flow of money halts, impoverished and disgruntled tribesmen may go back to fighting the government.
Gen Caslen said problems with sahwa payrolls were caused by administrative failures and that any missed back pay would eventually be handed out. The Iraqi government has said it will continue to pay the sahwa councils until alternative employment can be found for their members. According to those involved with the programme, announcements should be made in December which sahwa members will be given jobs, and where.
Gen Caslen warned that difficulties might arise at that point because public sector jobs would not be found for those without the right level of education. At their peak, the sahwa schemes had more than 90,000 members nationwide. In an effort to prevent widespread unemployment, Gen Caslen said the US military had been using development funds to help sheikhs set up private sector businesses that would provide jobs for those currently on payrolls.
psands@thenational.ae
