Iraq ousts 10,000 in security ministry

Iraq's Interior Ministry has fired or reassigned more than 10,000 employees, including high-ranking police, who were found to have tortured prisoners, accepted bribes or had ties to militias, a ministry spokesman has disclosed. Results of an internal inquiry detail 41 incidents of human rights abuses, including one case in which four members of the national police hanged prisoners from a ceiling and beat them with sticks in a ministry-run prison known as Site 4, according to the report by the ministry's inspector general. The United States has pressured Iraq's Shiite-led government to clean up its security forces as they undertake a broad plan to reduce sectarian violence. Sunni politicians have accused Iraq's police of collaborating with Shiite death squads. More than half of those fired or reassigned since June were found to have militia ties, Jassim Hanoon, the Interior Ministry's deputy spokesman, said in an interview. The investigation is ongoing. "We are struggling against this disease," Hanoon said of militia infiltration at the ministry. The Interior Ministry employs about 270,000 people, including police, emergency response units and administrative staff. "Maybe we aren't 100 percent cured," Hanoon said. "But we're getting better day by day." Some ministry employees were fired for arresting innocent people, while others had past criminal records, he said. Investigators are using information gathered within the ministry to probe political leaders and members of parliament, something not previously done, Hanoon said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to pursue criminal charges against political figures–including members of parliament–linked to extremist groups. The cases of human rights abuse were detailed in a 250-page annual report, Akeel Saeed, the Interior Ministry's inspector general, said in an interview. The four policemen allegedly involved in the Site 4 case were arrested and handed over to Iraq's criminal court system, Saeed said. "Under Saddam, investigators had this ideology. Torturing was routine," Saeed said. "I do feel we're having an impact, but it takes time, step by step." US military advisers are working to better screen and train police, including requiring 15 to 20 hours of human rights training for recruits, said Lt. Col. Pablo Hernandez, a spokesman with the US military unit responsible for training Iraqi police.