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Iraq:
Slim Chance for
Reconciliation Recedes
20.12.2006
By Mohammed A. Salih |
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Erbil, Kurdistan
Region (Iraq), December 19 ,-- Iraq's national
reconciliation conference held on the weekend
highlights the gap between the country's various
political groups and their lack of consensus on a
common basis for reconciliation.
Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's call for the
return of members of the country's dissolved army
under former president Saddam Hussein was
interpreted as positive, but the absence of major
Sunni armed groups at the conference held in Baghdad
could dash hopes of a comprehensive reconciliation
plan.
It is believed that elements loyal to the former
ruling Ba'ath party constitute a vital part of the
resistance. Sunni leaders demand the abolition of
laws keeping former Baathists from official jobs.
Al-Maliki's position on this was seen as confusing
and ambiguous.
"National reconciliation embraces all Iraqis except
Saddamists and Takfiris (those who declare others to
be infidel)," al-Maliki told the conference.
But he said that the "Iraqi government
differentiates between the Ba'athists who didn't
commit any crimes against Iraqi people and those who
perpetrated big crimes against Iraqi people and
continue shedding the blood of Iraqis, and carry out
assassinations and terrorist acts."
Several major parliamentary blocs boycotted the
conference, including the al-Iraqia slate of first
post-war premier Ayad Allawi, the Sunni slate of the
Iraqi Front National Dialogue led by Salih al-Mutlak,
and the al-Sadr bloc loyal to young cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.
That, in addition to rising violence, has
disappointed many that a workable solution could
emerge from the conference.
"In my opinion, neither this conference nor other
similar conferences can easily resolve the current
problems," Khasro Pirbal, a political analyst from
Arbil told IPS. "When there are people in these
meetings who don't accept each other, what results
can you expect."
Pirbal said "neighbouring countries have turned Iraq
into a field for settling old scores." The current
tensions in the country are "a part of a historical
problem to which several other international and
regional parties are contributing now."
The often conflicting views of Iraq's political
leaders make it hard for nationwide peace to be
realised, many of them acknowledge.
"We have to reiterate that national reconciliation
will not include in any way the symbols of Ba'ath
Party and its (previous) regime, the criminals,
killers, terrorist and Takfirisą and their
ideological extensions," Fuad Massoum, head of the
Kurdistan Alliance Bloc in the Iraqi parliament told
the reconciliation gathering.
He called for a federal solution, opposed by many
others in and outside Iraq. That envisages broad
autonomy to regions within a loosely held together
state.
In contrast to Massoum's views, shared by a majority
of Kurdish and Shia politicians, Sunnis had a
different idea what reconciliation should include.
"We call for a reconsideration of ignoring the
military servicemen of the former army (of Saddam
Hussein government), dealing with national
resistance and differentiating them from terrorism,
and preserving the unity of the state," said Salim
Abdullah from the main Sunni bloc, the Iraqi
Accordance Front.
On the ground, political discord translates into
bloody strife that is threatening to turn into a
fully-fledged civil war if not contained.
Sunnis accuse Shia militias of carrying out mass
abduction operations against them, and attacking
their neighbourhoods. At checkpoints of sorts, Shia
militias can arrest anyone with a Sunni sounding
name. In today's Iraq, Sunni names like Omar and
Othman can cost you your life at these checkpoints.
Shias, on the other hand, say Sunni extremists are
carrying out bombings that ruthlessly target Shia
civilians in crowded urban areas. Last month almost
200 Shias were killed by suicide bombers in the al-Sadr
city in the capital.
Iraq's government is under immense pressure from
Washington to bring the situation under control.
Many warn that if al-Maliki's government fails to do
so, unrest will spread to the rest of the Middle
East region.
"Iraq's crisis is getting deeper and deeper day
after day, and the essentials of Iraq's integrity
are falling apart," Fattah Zakhoyi from the
Kurdistan Toilers' Party that has one seat in the
parliament of northern Kurdistan told IPS.
"The political and religious leaders of the country
have to realise that this war cannot be continued
more than this, and it will jeopardise their
interests of their constituents as well as their
personal interests."
IPS
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