WASHINGTON, Jan 6: Sectarian rivalries and inefficient Iraqi ministries could turn the Iraqi security forces into “militias or armed gangs,” Lt. General John Vines, the senior US operational commander in Iraq, told The New York Times.

In what the newspaper called “perhaps the bluntest public assessment yet by a senior military officer” of Iraq’s future, Vines said in an interview published Friday that the security forces were currently better organized than the Iraqi government.

“The ability of the ministries to support them, to pay them, to resupply them, provide them with water, ammunition, spare parts and weapons is not as advanced as the competence of the forces in the field,” Vines said.

“We must make significant progress in that area before they can conduct independent operations,” he added, referring specifically to the need to develop Iraq’s ministries of defence and interior.

He also said it was important to strengthen the oil and electricity ministries because they provide vital income and infrastructure on which the Iraqi police and army depend.

“If they don’t produce enough income to support their security forces, members of those forces could turn to ulterior purposes and could become militias or armed gangs,” warned Vines.

Sectarian divides in Iraq could put into question the nascent democratic process, he added.

While the December 15 elections for a national assembly attracted a large number of voters, Vines said, “the vote is reported to primarily along sectarian lines, which is not particularly heartening.”

In the coming months, he said, it was important to keep a close watch on how the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq work toward an inclusive government.

“As the government forms, if we see indicators that there are purges of competent people to be replaced with ideologues in the security ministries, that would be disturbing,” he said.

“If competent commanders were to be replaced by those whose main qualification is an allegiance to a sect, that would be of concern to us,” he added.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defence, Vines told The New York Times, “must continue to be perceived as a force that protects the population, as opposed to oppressing it. This is a reason we’re watching what happens at the M.O.D. very carefully.”—AFP