US to TRAIN IRAQI POLICE in HUNGARY

There may be little support for US actions in Iraq by France and Germany, but the countries of Eastern Europe, emerging from dictatorships, are doing all they can.

U.S. Planning to Train 28,000 Iraqi Police at Taszar

The U.S. administration is seeking to train up to 28,000 Iraqi police officers at a military base in Hungary, officials said on 25 August. Talks were being held with the Hungarian government about using the Taszar Air Base to train thousands of Iraqis in police skills in the next several months. No final agreement had been reached yet.

A spokeswoman for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad said U.S. officials have set the goal of training and deploying 65,000 Iraqi police officers around the country. She said roughly 37,000 Iraqi police officers already were on the job, meaning "about 28,000" more could be trained at the Taszar base if Hungary agrees to the arrangement. She said U.S. officials planned a series of 8-week training sessions each involving about 3,000 police recruits.

The CPA has already set up three police training centres, in Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. But they do not have the capacity to train enough people within a reasonable time-scale. It was important to turn over many policing duties to Iraqis. Along with attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi infrastructure, ordinary crime has also been a problem in the Iraqi capital and elsewhere.

Bernard Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner, is responsible for U.S. efforts to train Iraqi police. The Coalition Provisional Authority spokeswoman said the training involves classroom instruction, and training in weapons use and interrogation without the use of torture.

Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamas Toth said Hungary had not received any official request for training facilities so far. "Hungary is ready to examine potential ways of co-operation, including how to put the Taszar base into use."

There can be nothing but good coming out of increased cooperation between the US and the "New Europe."