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Iraqi cleric Sadr rejects constitution,
Maintains Anti-U.S. Stand
19.2.2006
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BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has said he rejects
the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the
biggest parliamentary bloc, threatening a new crisis
over one of the country's most explosive issues.
"I reject this constitution which calls for
sectarianism and there is nothing good in this
constitution at all," he told Al Jazeera television
late on Saturday.
Sadr criticised federalism in the constitution,
which is rejected by Iraq's Sunni Arabs who fear it
will give Kurds and Shi'ites too much power and
control over Iraq's oil resources. |
Shiite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr |
"If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody
has the right to call for the establishment of
federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south,
north, middle or any other part of Iraq," he said.
Sadr, a former rebel leader who staged two revolts
against U.S. and Iraqi troops, has emerged as a
kingmaker in Iraqi politics and is a member of the
Shi'ite alliance which won 128 of 275 seats in
parliament in December 15 polls.
His anti-constitution stand comes at a sensitive
time when Iraqi politicians are only just starting
formal talks on forming a new government more than
two months after elections.
The Shi'ites, who will have a majority in the new
assembly, have already insisted their can be no
major changes to the charter, which was approved in
October and envisages a federal Iraq with
considerable autonomy for the regions.
Iraq's biggest Sunni political bloc has said it is
committed to talks with Shi'ites and Kurds to form a
government of national unity if its key demand on
changing the constitution is met.
A review of the Iraqi constitution is set to start
some time after the new government and parliament is
formed.
Iraq's al-Sadr Maintains Anti-U.S. Stand AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Barely 18 months ago Muqtada
al-Sadr was a man on the run, wanted for murder and
holed up with a band of fighters in a mosque
besieged by U.S. troops.
Fast forward to February 2006 and the young Shiite
cleric is a kingmaker with so much clout that he
engineered a stunning political coup, helping
Ibrahim al-Jaafari win approval for a second term as
prime minister with significant consequences for
Iraq and the United States.
Al-Sadr pulled it off while visiting Syria for talks
with its hardline leadership, long accused of
allowing insurgent leaders to remain on its soil and
turning a blind eye to foreign jihadists using its
territory to slip into Iraq to fight U.S. forces.
The single-vote victory by al-Jaafari over his
heavily favored rival has showcased al-Sadr's ascent
in post- Saddam Hussein Iraq — a matter of concern
to others in the Shiite establishment as well as the
United States.
Officials of the Shiite alliance say the Sadrists'
intervention in favor of al-Jaafari may have
endangered Shiite unity, jeopardized the alliance's
close links to the Kurds and could prompt some of
the alliance's partners to join other blocs.
They hinted that intimidation, or even veiled
threats of violence, may have been used by the
Sadrists to help independent lawmakers make up their
minds.
"The Sadrists moved in forcefully in the 24 hours
that preceded the vote," said Ridha Jawad Taqi of
the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq,
or SCIRI, the country's largest Shiite party.
SCIRI's candidate, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi,
lost to al-Jaafari.
Al-Sadr supporters, who are expected to be given
five Cabinet posts in al-Jaafari's next government,
deny any impropriety. They say they backed al-Jaafari
because they share with him a vision for an Iraq
free of foreign occupation.
They, however, were at pains to conceal their
satisfaction that al-Jaafari's win dealt a blow to
the Supreme Council, their rival within the United
Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of religious parties that
has won the largest number of seats — 130 — in the
275-member parliament.
"We have no problem with the Supreme Council. It was
a purely democratic contest decided by the ballot
box," said Falah Hassan Shalshal, one of 30
lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr.
A close Sadrist alliance with Iraq's next prime
minister would not be good news for Washington.
"The United States is targeting Islam, the Muslim
and Arab states in the Middle East and beyond," al-Sadr
told Syrian television in a Feb. 13 interview. "It
wants to control the world."
Al-Sadr, between meetings with Jordan's leaders,
stepped up calls Saturday for the United States and
other foreign troops to leave Iraq.
"The aim of my visit to the region is to improve
relations with neighboring countries, which is a
very important issue, and to free this area from the
Western, American war, whether it be in Iraq, Iran,
Syria or the rest of the region," al-Sadr said.
Before coming to Jordan, al-Sadr visited Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Syria. His aides say he
plans visits to Lebanon and Egypt.
While in Syria, the 33-year-old al-Sadr met with
radical Palestinian factions, expressed hope that
the sweeping victory by the militant Hamas group is
the beginning of an "Islamic awakening."
He rejected calling Iraq's mostly Sunni insurgents
terrorists and said al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi was "a fictitious personality or
one created by the (U.S.) occupation."
Al-Sadr and his followers burst on the Iraqi scene
almost three years ago, filling the power vacuum
left by the collapse of Saddam's regime. The
movement quickly raised its profile, organizing
anti-U.S. protests and later taking on the Americans
in battles across central and southern Iraq.
The protracted battle of Najaf, a holy Shiite city
south of Baghdad, in the summer of 2004 saw his
militiamen soundly defeated by a joint U.S.-Iraqi
force. Taking the fight to his stronghold in
Baghdad's mainly Shiite Sadr City district brought
him another defeat.
By the end of 2004, al-Sadr's days as an anti-U.S.
warrior cleric were over, but he and his followers
are still some distance from being a peaceful and
democratic force.
The Sadrists have kept a highly mobile militia
numbering in the thousands. They follow a strict
interpretation of Islamic Sharia law and, according
to residents in areas where they are dominant, often
resort to violence to enforce it.
They are suspected of running death squads,
primarily targeting Saddam loyalists and militant
Sunni Arabs known for anti-Shiite sentiments. They
are closely linked to Iran, maintain contacts with
some factions of the Sunni-dominated insurgency and,
like other Shiite groups, have allowed hundreds of
militiamen to infiltrate the security forces.
In the southern city of Basra, for example,
residents say al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen bomb
stores suspected of selling liquor or permissive
entertainment material. They intercept, and in some
cases beat up, men and women whose appearance they
deem immodest.
Last year, Mahdi militiamen burned three offices
belonging to the Supreme Council after al-Sadr's
Najaf office was torn down to allow for the
expansion of a plaza outside the mosque of Imam Ali,
Shiism's founding father.
In the southern city of Kut, residents say the Mahdi
militiamen have stopped parading on the streets as
they used to in 2004, but were suspected of bombing
liquor stores and barber shops.
Muzafar al-Moussawi, al-Sadr's representative in Kut,
denies the Mahdi Army was involved in the bombings,
but acknowledges that its fighters "assist security
forces when asked."
Source: AP-Reuters
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