Kirkuk Province recently celebrated the commencement of three new Civil Service Corps.

On Sept. 14, Hawijah celebrated the start of a new CSC and the next day, two started in Dibis.

“The CSCs are intended to provide the necessary training, education and skill that will allow the graduates to seek and attain good paying jobs and to begin the hard task of rebuilding Iraq village by village, city by city,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Hudie, commander, 3rd Battalion, 6th Artillery regiment, 10th Mountain Div, at the Dibis commencement ceremony.

The CSC program is patterned after a U.S. depression-era job program known as the Civilian Conservation Corps designed to put young men back to work. What makes the program unique is that all of the apprentices are former Sons of Iraq members who have been credited for the significant security gains in the Kirkuk Province.

The Hawijah ceremony was held at the Hawijah Farmer’s Union building and was attended by Lt. Col. Christopher Vanek, commander 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division as well as Abu Saddam, the district council chairman. The ribbon cutting ceremony was witnessed by some of the 105 CSC apprentices who will soon be taking on the task of learning the valuable skills needed in rebuilding their communities.

“This is a very important day for us…security and the economy is rising. This is a chance to start a new life. These men are learning for the future. We thank God for this opportunity. We are going to keep making Hawijah better, and better, and better,” said Abu Saddam.

This new contract will teach Iraqi men trades that will build infrastructure in Hawijah, according to Capt. Kurt Rudeselli, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. Trades taught will be electrical, plumbing, sanitation, and canal maintenance.

On the heels of the Hawijah ceremony was the Dibis CSC commencement ceremony, which represented two separate contracts that will employ 215 CSC apprentices.

“The Dibis CSC were designed from many discussions with the Dibis City Council, the electrical power plant and the Northern Oil Company to meet the future construction needs of both the electrical and oil industry that are major employers with the Dibis district,” said Hudie.

The former SOI members will receive training in carpentry, masonry and electrical work under the General Construction contract. Under the Industrial contract, the students will receive training in electrical motor-generator repairs, welding, electrical line repairs and industrial plumbing.

“We thank the American people for their investment in Iraq and in its people,” said Hadi Mustafa, the Dibis Mayor, during his address to guests.

MNF-I

Four years ago, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was center-stage amid allegations of detainee abuse, and coalition forces suddenly cast as conquerors instead of liberators, losing the trust of the Iraqi people.

Conscientious decisions and new detainee programs have helped the coalition turn the corner on the road to regaining that lost trust, Multinational Force Iraq’s commander of detainee operations said yesterday in a Baghdad news conference.

“Today, we are still trying to regain that trust, and I want to tell you once again there was no justification for what happened at Abu Ghraib,” Army Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone told reporters. “True apologies, though, must be followed by actions which right the initial wrong, and over the past year, we have made great efforts to correct our past mistakes.”

A multifaceted approach, including providing better health care and being more culturally sensitive, have led to an improved situation for those in detention, Stone said. Assessing detainees to identify and isolate extremists from the general population is an important step that allows moderate detainees to live free from fear and intimidation, he added.

The practice is proving successful. The reduction of detainee-on-detainee violence over the past six months has been dramatic, Stone said. It also has opened doors to engage the more moderate population and address some of the issues that, initially, may have contributed to their detention.

Addressing Social Causes of Insurgency

“They show us that detainees gravitated toward the insurgency because they were underemployed, undereducated, and in need of supplemental sources of income,” Stone said. “To address these social problems and to promote good citizenship, we now offer detainees an array of voluntary programs to help serve as a deterrent to insurgent activity.”

Programs offered to the detainees include education, vocational training, civics, Islamic discussion, and pay-for-work programs that empower moderate detainees and effectively marginalize violent extremists. Among the most important skills detainees can learn are the abilities to read and write, he said.

“Through such programs, we aim to not only peacefully reintegrate moderates into the Iraqi society, but we also encourage them to become willing and active partners in Iraq’s reconstruction,” Stone said. “The large number of former detainees who have returned to our facilities to help teach programs shows that we are succeeding.”

Detainee Population Falling

It seems that’s the only way most former detainees return to detention centers — as teachers to their fellow Iraqis. The detainee population has fallen from a peak of 26,000 in the summer of 2007, to over 21,000 now.

In fact, as of February, release rates have overtaken intake rates, Stone said.

“Today we are releasing, on average, about 50 detainees each day, compared to an average daily intake of only 30 detainees,” he said, adding that “miniscule re-internment” rates show the right people are being released.

“Since our engagement programs began in earnest last September, we have … released [nearly] 10,000 detainees, but just 33 have returned to our custody.”

Transparency during this transformation is key to its success as well, Stone added. Detention facilities have been open to inspection by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, which also has had private discussions with detainees about facility conditions.

“We also have increasingly opened our gates to the international media from Western newspapers and radio to pan-Arab news outlets and satellite networks,” Stone said. “We want people to see – not just to read and not just to hear about – what goes on inside detention.”

Family Visitation for Detainees

Amid all the changes to improve detainee care and treatment is the realization that detainees’ families also are affected. Visitation programs are in place at Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca, and on average, more than 2,000 visits occur a week.

In fact, for the many families who can’t reach Camp Bucca, a video-conferencing center has the capability to unite detainees and their loved ones, Stone said.

“Ultimately, we realize that no matter how much we have revolutionized the conduct of detainee operations over the past year, at the end of the day, detention is still detention,” he said, adding that he believes detention is a critical task serving both U.S. and Iraqi interests.

“By prioritizing population protection inside our detention centers,” Stone said, “we are ensuring that violent extremists remain isolated – both physically and ideologically. With their marginalization, we can begin to reintegrate the vast majority of detainees who are moderate back into society in a safe and secure manner.”

The hope is that reintegrated detainees who have participated in training and other programs offered in detention facilities will aid in the creation of a “vibrant and a robust civil society” in Iraq, the general said.

DoD
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

DoD
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

U.S. officials decided last year that detainees held in coalition-run facilities in Iraq needed opportunities to voice their concerns and broaden their minds, rather than to just mark time, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Iraq said today.

“The way detention operations used to be conducted here in the country were a strategic risk,” Army Brig. Gen. Michael R. Nevin, commander of 177th Military Police Brigade, said in a conference call with military analysts.

“Back about in last March and April, there were a lot of violent actions, riots, detainee-on-detainee violence and detainee-on-guard violence going on in the facilities,” Nevin recalled. “Things were boiling over.”

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