Iraq's Basra Police Receive Human Rights Training

A human rights campaign for police forces in the southern Iraqi city of Basra began this week in response to citizens' complaints of human rights abuses by security forces, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports.

Basra is the country's second-largest city and is the first to launch a human rights program for security forces.

Mehdi al-Timimi, the head of Basra's Human Rights Ministry, told RFI that scores of officers are attending human rights seminars and thousands of posters and large billboards have been placed near checkpoints to enforce the message.

Basra Police Lieutenant Bahaa Ali told RFI that security forces are under strict orders from the Interior Ministry to be exemplary in their treatment of people and respect for human rights.