BAGHDAD, Sept 27: Nato inaugurated an officer academy on the outskirts of Baghdad on Tuesday, boosting its share in training Iraqi security forces.
Nato, which was nearly torn apart in 2003 in a row over the US-led war, has no combat role in Iraq. But it agreed last year to support US-led training of Iraqi soldiers with courses aimed at turning out 1,000 senior officers a year.
The 26-member alliance will shift the bulk of its training mission in Baghdad’s heavily fortified international zone to the academy in the suburb of Rustamiya some 20 km south.
“The Atlantic alliance is committed to help Iraq on its journey towards a better future,” Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told Nato staff at the centre on an unannounced visit to Iraq.
The United States, which sees training of the Iraqi military as key to its efforts ultimately to hand back security to local Iraqis and wind down its own presence, welcomed the move.
“Nato has already been training hundreds of Iraqi officers since it began its training mission last year,” US ambassador to Nato Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
She said Nato would work hand-in-hand with Iraqis to train mid- and senior-level officers who lead the security forces.
Rustamiya was due to be operational around the start of 2005 but suffered from shortfalls in staff and funds. Nato members such as Germany and France that opposed the war have refused to set foot in the country.
Nato’s 150 trainers in Iraq have so far focused on mentoring Iraqi officers in often cramped conditions at their headquarters in the Green Zone.
The Rustamiya centre, built around a base left by the British army which occupied Iraq following World War One, is hoped to dramatically raise the scope of its training.
Every year, 600 soldiers will go through an officer commissioning course, modelled on British military training, including instruction ranging from leadership to computer skills. The aim is to train 1,000 officers annually.
The Nato training personnel come from 17 countries but the alliance insists all 26 members contribute to the Iraq mission, with finance, equipment or out-of-country training.
While the US-led coalition has claimed a number of successes in capturing or killing insurgents in recent months, the violence continued unabated on Tuesday with at least 10 killed by a suicide bomber north of Baghdad on Tuesday.
While some US officials consider the possibility of Nato ultimately taking over all security training in the country, their priority is for Rustamiya to work.
“We believe the focus now and in the immediate future should be on consolidating Nato’s training efforts, both within Iraq and without,” said Nuland.
ASYLUM SEEKERS: Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday urged governments to hold off sending Iraqi asylum seekers home, saying much of the country remains too dangerous.
Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the agency is concerned that some governments are considering withdrawing asylum status granted to Iraqis, in an effort to get them to leave.
He declined to identify the countries involved.
“Despite the January 2005 elections in Iraqi, authorities are not yet able to protect civilians from violent attacks, including those specifically targeting civilians in southern and central Iraq, nor can access to basic services needed for a safe and stable life be guaranteed,” Redmond told reporters.
“Premature returns could worsen tensions between residents and returnees, thereby increasing insecurity,” he added.
“UNHCR encourage governments to postpone the introduction of measures which are intended to promote or induce voluntary returns for persons originating from southern and central Iraq.”
Returns to the country’s more stable north — mainly inhabited by Kurds — are feasible for people originally from that region, provided they are voluntary and that those going back “have family and community links that can ensure their access to protection, housing and other basic services,” Redmond said.
However, the fact that the north is safer does not mean Iraqi asylum seekers originally from other regions should be sent there, he said.
“Iraqi asylum seekers should not be rejected simply because they could possibly move elsewhere inside Iraq,” rather than their home areas, he said.
The UNHCR estimates that between 2003 — when Saddam Hussein was ousted — and this year, more than 253,000 Iraqis have gone home, most of their own accord.
