Sami Salah Al Din, Iraq "Instead of being thanked, we policemen are seen as bad people"

Sami Salah Al Din is a 35-year-old Iraqi policeman. He used to work for the Ministry of Water Resources during the rule of former President Saddam Hussein but lost his job after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Salah Al Din says he never wanted to be a policeman but was left with no other way of supporting his family in a time of high unemployment in the country. Being a policeman in Baghdad is a highly dangerous occupation. Thousands of policemen have been killed since 2003. Salah Al Din fears for his life and the fate of his family should he be killed.

“Every time I leave home, I kiss all three of my daughters as if I won’t see them again. I leave my home in civilian clothes and change into a police uniform once I’m inside the station. I do this so that I am not targeted on my way to work.

“Insurgents and militias view us as supporters of US troops. But it isn’t true. We are in the streets to keep peace in Iraq, to protect thousands of children as they go to school and workers as they go to their jobs.

“We work in a stressful situation, always aware that a bullet could pierce our hearts at any time or a suicide bomber could target us.

“Even being with four other colleagues in the car, we still feel the danger because other people dressed as police officers could be militias or insurgents and could kill all of us.

“To make matters worse, US troops don’t patrol without a car of Iraqi police officers in front of their convoy and one behind it. It is ironic that it is us who protect those [US troops] who are here to protect us.

“We cannot get protection from anyone because we are the ones responsible for offering protection. We have started to protect ourselves by keeping distant from hot spot areas. We leave those to US forces.

“I start breathing normally again when I get back home at the end of my eight-hour day. When my wife Rabab opens the door and sees me, she always smiles.

US troops don’t patrol without a car of Iraqi police officers in front of their convoy and one behind it. It is ironic that it is us who protect those [US troops] who are here to protect us.

“During the day, she calls me on my mobile phone each time there is an explosion or when the TV news talks of a police officer who has been killed.

“Her situation is even worse because she cannot talk about what I do and get support from our neighbours, who are all Sunnis from the Kadhimiyah district. Today, we cannot trust anyone and sometimes have to hide my job even from our own family.

“Three months ago a policeman was killed by his brother-in-law in Ramadi, in Anbar province, after he discovered he was a policeman.

“We policemen earn a miserable salary of US $200 a month and in the end, instead of being thanked, we are seen as bad people. It’s hard and we have only God to protect us, no one else.

“We aren’t even fully equipped and in my case I have to depend on my old Kalashnikov [assault rifle] and my personal gun.

“I have received many threatening letters at home and have moved house two times but I cannot leave Iraq and cannot leave my job. If someone kills me, at least I will have died working to bring food for my family.”

as/ar/ed