Report raises concern over Iraq’s citizen recruitment

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Report raises concern over Iraq’s citizen recruitment
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 20, 2007

ARLINGTON, Va. — The most recent report on progress in Iraq raises concern about the pace at which “concerned local citizens” are being folded into the Iraqi security forces.

The pace at which those citizens are being integrated into the Iraqi security forces is disturbingly slow, the report said.

The report said a growing number of Iraqis are becoming “concerned local citizens,” which serve as neighborhood watches or are under U.S.-funded contracts to protect infrastructure. Many once belonged to insurgent or other illegal groups.

Of the roughly 69,000 citizens in the groups, about 80 percent are Sunni and 20 percent are Shiite, many of whom have said they would like to join the Iraqi police or army, the report said.

“The CLC program is proving crucial to the counterinsurgency effort, but the slow pace of integrating the CLC members into the GoI institutions, lack of alternative employment and fears by the government that these forces may return to violence or form new militias are of concern,” the report said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51129