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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2004)
| Global update | Police shortage heightens danger in Iraq Bombs have been found throughout Baghdad during the scramble to increase protection for future election BYIIM KRANE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi capi tal is still far short of the numbers of Iraqi policemen needed to secure it, and the force won’t be up to strength in time for national elections in Jan uary, the U.S. general in charge of I-9SKK0 Pita Pit FRESH THINKING HEALTHY EATING in the 5vtee n ita at campusiood.com Thru 10/25 Thurs. Sltil 4a m ‘Deiuwtiea until 30 min. Before eluting 485-5595 • 1087 Willamette St. Two big stores filled with books IT CAMPUS East 1 3th and Alder DOWNTOWN East 5th and Willamette about applying \o Graduate _ School? Graduate school expert and the author of * Graduate Admissions: What Works, What Doesn't and Why?” Don Asher will speak on... • Learning how to make your application more effective • Getting the Inside scoop on how admissions decisions are made • Questions you should ask yourself before applying • Writing great essays • Much morel Monday, October 25th • 3:30 - 4:30pm Gerunger Lounge C"**onfor 220 Hendricks HaU • 346-3235 vUlt?U! t^ymcaTeer.uoKgoiwdu security in Baghdad said Tliesday. The blunt assessment of police de ficiencies contradicts upbeat assess ments that the Iraqi force would be able to protect Iraqi voters by the scheduled election, or even earlier. Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, com mander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Di vision, said Baghdad needs 25,000 police. Of those, 7,000 would patrol Sadr City, the Shiite slum home to more than a third of the capital’s 6 million residents, he said. Right now, the city counts 15,000 police — most of whom have had just eight weeks of training. “We’re about 10,000 short of what we need,” Chiarelli said in a lunch briefing with reporters. He said Bagh dad’s required contingent of 25,000 police should be on the streets by spring or summer 2005. Meanwhile, a thousand home made bombs have been hidden in the streets and alleys of Sadr City, and Chiarelli said neighborhood leaders have promised to disarm them as part of an ongoing weapons amnesty. The rebel bombs remain hidden in the east Baghdad neighborhood’s walls and buried under its streets. Such roadside bombs have proven the most lethal weapon used by Iraqi guerrillas against U.S. troops. “We’re not digging them up. That’s their responsibility,” Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, a 1st Cavalry deputy com mander, said of the Shiite militia that still controls portions of Sadr City. The revelation came during re cent discussions between com manders in the 1st Cavalry Division, responsible for security in Baghdad, and leaders of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Al-Sadr’s one-time rebel group has handed in multiple truckloads of heavy weapons in an unprecedented disarmament that has been under way for more than a week. Hammond said militia leaders told the Army they also plan to remove the buried bombs. The disarming of the Mahdi Army, if it takes hold, leaves the U.S. mili tary freer to concentrate on a widely expected assault on guerrilla-held Fallujah. Iraqi and U.S. officials have long suggested an assault on the city west of Baghdad will begin after the U.S. presidential election Nov. 2. The Mahdi Army fought gritty ur ban battles with U.S. troops in April and August that saw more than a thousand killed. In Sadr City, law enforcement melted away in the face of Mahdi militia assaults. Only 500 police re main in the neighborhood, which has been largely under control of the Shiite rebels for months. CARE International director latest in string of abductions Margaret Hassan has worked for 30 years in Iracj supplying medicines and other humanitarian aid BY ROBERT H. REID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen seized the head of CARE Internation al's operations in Iraq — a woman who has worked on behalf of Iraqis for three decades — as the British government on Tliesday weighed a politically volatile American request to transfer soldiers to dangerous ar eas near the capital. Early Wednesday, CARE Australia, which coordinates the international agency's Iraq operations, announced it had suspended operations because of the abduction, but it said staff would not be evacuated. Margaret Hassan, who holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenships and is married to an Iraqi, is among the most widely known humanitari an officials in the Middle East. She is also the most high-profile figure to fall victim to a wave of kidnappings sweeping Iraq in recent months. The Arab television station Al Jazeera broadcast a brief video show ing Hassan, wearing a white blouse and appearing tense, sitting in a room with bare white walls. An editor at the station, based in Qatar, said the tape contained no audio. It did not identify what group was holding her and con tained no demand for her release. Hassan, who is in her early 60s, was kidnapped about 7:30 a.m. while being driven from her home to CARE's office in a western neighbor hood of the capitol, a CARE employ ee said. The employee said the group did not employ armed guards. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Hassan's husband, Tahseen Ali Has san, said his wife was abducied near the CARE office. “Two cars intercepted her from the front and back,” he said. “They at tacked the car and pulled out the driv er and a companion. Then they took the car to an unknown destination.” He said his wife had not received threats and that the kidnappers had not contacted anyone with any de mands. “Nothing like this happened before, because CARE is a humanitari an organization, and she has served the Iraqi people for 30 years,” he said. Hassan has lived in Baghdad for 30 years, helping supply medicines and other humanitarian aid and speaking out about Iraqis' suffering under inter national sanctions during the 1990s. She went to work for CARE Interna tional soon after it began operations in Iraq in 1991 following the Gulf War, with programs focusing on rebuilding and maintaining water and sanitation systems, hospitals and clinics. The kidnapping was the latest at tack against humanitarian organiza tions, many of which have curtailed operations and withdrawn interna tional staff because of the violence in Iraq. It also follows a wave of abduc tions targeting foreigners in the heart of the capital. “Our staff are not operating current ly there, they're certainly not working there now in light of the current situa tion,” Robert Glasser, CARE Aus tralia's chief executive officer, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Although militants have kid napped at least seven other women over the past six months, all were lat er released. By contrast, at least 30 male hostages have been killed, in cluding three Americans beheaded by their captors. Hassan's abduction occurred less than two weeks after a video posted on an Islamic Web site showed the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley. CARE said Hassan was born in Britain, but the British and Irish for eign offices said she was born in Ire land, which is not part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. When the kidnap pers sent the tape to Al-Jazeera, they said they had abducted a “British aid worker,” according to the station. 020471 Real World Experience for Credit Thursday, October 21, 3:30 p.m. 360 Oregon Hall Come learn how to earn UO credit for internships within the U.S. and internationally Applying to Graduate School Wednesday, October 27, 4:00 p.m. 360 Oregon Hall A general overview of the grad school application y V 364 Oregon Hall • 346-3211 • http://advising.uoregonj process, procedures and timelines.
