Mulbah promises to clean up police

A vow by the new police chief, Paul Mulbah, to stamp out crime and tighten gun control within his department has been welcomed cautiously by human rights groups and other civil-society bodies in Liberia. "The development has been well received, especially since he has been able to admit publicly what most people knew: that armed robbery is carried out by elements within the police," one Liberian political observer told IRIN. After taking measures to censure criminals within the police, the source said, Mulbah will need to make a comprehensive review of all police files to weed those with criminal pasts. Civil liberty bodies say 60-70 percent of the members of a special police unit created since the end of the civil war are criminals or former faction fighters and that they have been committing crimes and abusing people's rights with impunity. The pre-war regular police, one source said, have been restricted to traffic duties. The national director for the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC), Steve Wilson, said he expected Mulbah, whom he was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, to make commitments to ensure that the police end their culture of brutality and impunity. "He should try to turn the tables so the public can begin to have some confidence in the police to protect their lives and property," Wilson told IRIN. He said the CJPC, a local human rights and legal aid body, would want Mulbah to introduce human rights training into the police academy. In a measure to gain public confidence, Mulbah told reporters on Monday he had ordered the immediate arrest of any armed off-duty policeman found in the streets of the capital after midnight, Reuters reported. He also said any unlicensed cars on the streets would be impounded irrespective of the driver's station in life. "I mean this and it will happen," Reuters reported him as saying. Residents have said that unmarked vehicles seen in Monrovia belonged to senior government officials, according to Reuters. Mulbah also said that two policemen were among five people arrested following a robbery in Monrovia at the weekend. Liberian President Charles Taylor appointed Mulbah last week to replace Joe Tate, who died on 10 August in a plane crash. Mulbah has no experience in police affairs, sources said, having served as an administrator for most of his professional career.