The next Saddam — minus the torture
Meet the next Saddam – minus the torture
General Mohan al-Furayji, the Iraqi commander in Basra
A short, stocky man in his early fifties, Mohan, who has five children, is a secular Shiite Muslim who is said to have studied at the prestigious Baghdad military academy before moving up the ranks of the Iraqi army. His career, like that of so many of his peers, came to an abrupt halt in the mid-1990s when he fell out with Saddam and found himself incarcerated at Abu Ghraib, where he was tortured.
His experience has given him an abiding aversion to torture, which in itself is something of a rarity for an Iraqi in a position of authority. In a rare interview after taking control of Basra palace from the British, Mohan recalled that torture was routine at Abu Ghraib, and immensely damaging.
‘I haven’t allowed that in my force to the best of my ability. I know that is easy to say, but I try to be in charge of specific investigations,’ he insisted. ‘At the end torture is pointless, people will confess to anything to avoid further pain. I know I did. All I asked in return was to get a message to my family saying how much I cared for them before I died.’
That is not to say Mohan is a soft touch. Far from it. Mohan, who was personally appointed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to restore order in the troubled south of the country, is particularly critical of the 15,000-strong police force which is supposed to be responsible for maintaining security in the city.
In Mohan’s view the police force is corrupt and has been infiltrated by the local militias. Together with General Jalil Shuwayl, another Maliki appointee who has been given special responsibility for the police, Mahon is trying to root out the more corrupt officers and make the force fully accountable to the local people, a campaign that has so far resulted in two abortive assassination attempts on Jalil’s life.
Even so, there is no denying that Mohan has had a tremendous impact on containing the endemic violence in Basra, so much so that his name is frequently cited by British commanders as an example of what can be achieved if Iraqis are allowed to take control of their own destiny.
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