Englishman in New York

Interesting story in the New York Times today about the freelance journalist from New York called Steven Vincent who was murdered in Iraq on Tuesday. Steven was obviously a brave, talented, and dedicated reporter—a man who was motivated to go to Iraq after 9/11 to find out for himself what was going on there. I was particularly struck by the following lines in the New York Times story:

Mr. Vincent said in conversations that he was particularly incensed about the sharp divide between men and women in the Islamic world. He was close to [his interpreter] Ms. Tuaiz, who he said had declined to accept payment for her work as an interpreter. He said he believed that the American-led invasion of Iraq was justified and part of a much larger campaign against what he called “Islamo-fascism.”

But he also said he was deeply disappointed by the failure of the United States and Britain to enforce their visions of democracy here. It was the duty of journalists, he said, to expose the pitfalls of the rising tide of Shiite Islam in Iraq in order to awaken the Bush administration to the kind of nation it was helping to create.

Whoever arranged for Steven Vincent to be killed had a lot to hide. Steven had been investigating corruption among Iraqi police in Basra—specifically about the role of policemen in the recent assassinations of former Baath Party officials. He was last seen on Tuesday being taken away by two men dressed in police uniforms and driving a police sedan.

This week the world lost a man with an extremely valuable insight into post-war Iraq. Hopefully his interpreter, who was shot but survived, will have enough information to find the men who did this, so that Steven’s story does not die with him. And the responsibility for tracking and capturing these men lies with the British.

Here is an extract from an Op-Ed by Steven that appeared in the New York Times last weekend.

The fact that the British are in effect strengthening the hand of Shiite organizations is not lost on Basra’s residents.

“No one trusts the police,” one Iraqi journalist told me. “If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump.” Mufeed al-Mushashaee, the leader of a liberal political organization called the Shabanea Rebellion, told me that he felt that “the entire force should be dissolved and replaced with people educated in human rights and democracy.”

Unfortunately, this is precisely what the British aren’t doing. Fearing to appear like colonial occupiers, they avoid any hint of ideological indoctrination: in my time with them, not once did I see an instructor explain such basics of democracy as the politically neutral role of the police in a civil society. Nor did I see anyone question the alarming number of religious posters on the walls of Basran police stations. When I asked British troops if the security sector reform strategy included measures to encourage cadets to identify with the national government rather than their neighborhood mosque, I received polite shrugs: not our job, mate.

The results are apparent. At the city’s university, for example, self-appointed monitors patrol the campuses, ensuring that women’s attire and makeup are properly Islamic. “I’d like to throw them off the grounds, but who will do it?” a university administrator asked me. “Most of our police belong to the same religious parties as the monitors.”

[...]Meanwhile, the British stand above the growing turmoil, refusing to challenge the Islamists’ claim on the hearts and minds of police officers. This detachment angers many Basrans. “The British know what’s happening but they are asleep, pretending they can simply establish security and leave behind democracy,” said the police lieutenant who had told me of the assassinations. “Before such a government takes root here, we must experience a transformation of our minds.”

In other words, real security reform requires psychological as well as physical training. Unless the British include in their security sector reform strategy some basic lessons in democratic principles, Basra risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers.

A good start would be finding, trying, and convicting Steven’s killers.

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