Times of London : Interpreters caught in the middle

Interpreters caught in the middle

Deborah Haynes in Baghdad | August 10, 2007

As the interpreter translated for a British major the words of an Iraqi police officer, he could hear other policemen muttering about him in Arabic. “Spy” and “traitor”, they said.

The comments directed at Diya Khalil on Wednesday may have passed over the head of the British officer. But they go to the heart of the problem facing Iraqis working as interpreters for the military in southern Iraq.

Regarded as “collaborators” by Shia militias, they are evidently at risk from the likes of the Mahdi army. But they are also at risk from the very people British soldiers are training to take over security when UK armed forces pull out. Interpreters say that they will have no protection once the British leave because they believe a majority of the Iraqi police, and to a lesser extent the army, have been infiltrated by the militias that want them dead.

Gordon Brown is reviewing Tony Blair’s refusal to give special asylum consideration to the 91 interpreters working for British forces.

Mr Khalil knows all too well the perils of his job. Gunmen shot dead his father, Khalil Abrahim, 51, who also worked as an interpreter for the British Army, nine months ago.

Policemen failed to come to his father’s aide for several minutes. Mr Khalil asked the captain of the Azizya Police station why. “He told me that the people who killed my father could come and kill him and that no one would touch them,” Mr Khalil said.

The interpreters in Basra say they fear Iraqi police more than Iraqi soldiers because they are recruited locally and have links with the militias.

A second interpreter, R. Mageed, now only translates when British soldiers work with the Iraqi Army. He says working with the police has become too dangerous. Mr Mageed, 23, still ventures outside the training camp to see his wife and child. “When we used to do training with the police the majority of them would ask where do you live, what is your name and why don’t you leave your job with the British Army?” he said. “Sometimes they took a picture. As a result I do not do training with the police because it is very dangerous.”

Abu Hassan, the Iraqi Police Lieutenant in Basra, admitted that there had been bad elements inside the police force who intimidated the interpreters, but he said great efforts were being made to remove them.

British officials regard this as an Iraqi problem. As for the suggestion that Iraqi police officers muttered “traitor” within earshot of interpreters, Major Mike Shearer, the British military spokesman in southern Iraq, said he had never heard of such a complaint.

As for Mr Khalil, he said the threat against his life has forced him to live permanently on the small training camp, which sits next to a large Iraqi Army headquarters just outside Basra.

“I wish for Britain to give me asylum. This is my dream,” he said.