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Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 23 March 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 March 2006. It was answered by Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 May 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.


Iraq

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the degree of ethnic and religious balance in Iraqi (a) police and (b) security forces of the (i) Ministry of Defence and (ii) Ministry of the Interior.
Answer

In the Iraqi police service, which is provincial in structure, there is no formal system with which to track demographics. In the army, which recruits nationally, we estimate that six of the 10 divisions are overwhelmingly Arab, reflecting the ethnic mix in the areas from which they recruit, and of the remaining four, three are majority Kurdish. In the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, as at 1 April 2006, the distribution of senior posts is as follows:

Number Percentage
Sunni Arab 15 26
Shia Arab 38 66
Kurdish 4 7
Turkoman 1 1
Total 58 100

Comparable information is not held for the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
61850; 445 c1349-50W;445 c1349-50W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Armed forces Iraq Police
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk