Female Iraqi police officers train counter-terrorism techniques
Female Iraqi police officers in training at the Ministry of Interior facility. Photo: EUAM Iraq
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Between October 18–20, female police officers from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior received a three-day training from European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM Iraq), the EU representative in Iraq, and the EU Service for Foreign Policy Instruments.
The Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI 1), which has its headquarters in Brussels, and the CT JUST program were instrumental in bringing about the training in Counter-terrorism Special Investigation Techniques. The program is one of the EU’s instruments for dealing with the complex nature of terrorist threats, which call for a successful strategy to prevent, identify, and look into incidents of terrorism.
“We are happy that the first activity of CT JUST responds to an Iraqi request for the reinforcement of the capacities of women,” said Maria Sanchez Gil-Cepeda, Programme Manager at the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments. “The gender dimension must be taken into consideration to generate more inclusive and thus more effective initiatives and reshape the narrative on counter-terrorism.”
In addition to conducting a roundtable discussion, EUAM Iraq participated to the FPI-led training by giving a presentation on special operations using unique investigation procedures based on experiences with the Swedish police.
The 23 Iraqi female police officers benefited from learning about many parts of special investigative procedures, including electronic surveillance, interrogations, cyber intelligence (based on best practices from Europe and the MENA area). The training also offered a forum for useful conversations about how to modify the course material for the local environment.
“The real experiences that the experts shared with us are very important. Although we have similar techniques that we use in our investigations, including new methods of criminal investigations, they add to our knowledge, which is very important in our work,” said Israa Sabah, 1st Lieutenant and Doctor of Law.
“We will apply what we learned on the ground and would like to have more workshops in this regard,” added Sabah.
With the help and collaboration of Major General Ziad Taha Ali, Head of the Directorate, the training took place in the Ministry of Interior Training and Qualifications Directorate facility in Baghdad, Iraq.