News about the Arab part of Iraq
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Sunni-Shia schism 'threatening to tear
Iraq apart', says conflict group 27.2.2006
By Michael Howard in Erbil
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Iraq is on the verge of
breaking up along religious, ethnic and tribal lines
- a process bloodily amplified by the Shia versus
Sunni violence in the wake of last week's bomb
attack on the gold-domed shrine in Samarra, the
International Crisis Group says in a report out
today.
The conflict resolution organisation warns that,
left unchecked, the widening fissures in Iraqi
society that have been exposed since the removal of
the Ba'athist regime in 2003 could bring further
"instability and violence to many areas, especially
those with mixed populations".
The most pressing problem is the Sunni-Shia schism
which "threatens to tear the country apart" says the
report, entitled The Next Iraqi War? It urges Iraqi
leaders and the international community to take
immediate action to prevent the conflict from
escalating into a civil war that could cause Iraq's
disintegration and spread chaos through the region.
But it also calls for the international community,
including Iraq's neighbours, to start preparing for
the "regrettable" scenario in which the country
falls apart.
"Until now, such an effort has been a taboo, but
failure to anticipate such a possibility may lead to
further disasters in the future," the ICG warns.
Five days of violence in the wake of the Samarra
bombing, have left more than 200 dead and many
mosques smashed, despite daytime curfews on Baghdad
and surrounding provinces.
There were further ominous signs of the "cleansing"
of once mixed neighbourhoods in and around Baghdad.
Scores of Shia families were reported to have fled
homes in the restive western Sunni suburb of Abu
Ghraib. Shia community leaders said they were being
housed temporarily in schools and other buildings in
Shia areas. In the latest round of attacks, a bomb
destroyed a minibus as it was leaving a bus station
in the mostly Shia town of Hilla, 60 miles south of
Baghdad, killing five people and wounding three.
In Baghdad at least 18 people were killed and more
than 50 injured when mortar rounds slammed into
houses in two mainly Shia neighbourhoods. Also, two
US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb. Iraq's
political leadership staged a show of unity by
appearing on TV on Saturday night.
The prime minster Ibrahim al Jaafari said that all
or most of the leaders "expressed the importance of
accelerating the political process without any
delay". Sunni leaders who pulled out of talks to
form a national unity government hinted they may
soon rejoin the process.
Earlier, President Bush had called seven party
leaders urging them to "continue to work together to
thwart the efforts of the perpetrators of the
violence to sow discord", said a White House
spokesman.
Joost Hiltermann, the director of the ICG's Middle
East Project, denied the prognosis was overly
gloomy. "It is true I am pessimistic," he said. "But
there are still some restraints in place and steps
that could work and we could yet see Iraq through
the worst of the crisis."
He said it was encouraging that Shia and Sunni
religious leaders had called for unity and calm.
"Also ordinary Iraqis seem to have no desire for
either a civil war or the break up of their
country," he said.
www.guardian.co.uk
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