|
Prime Minister Maliki's
national unity project is struggling as the killings
continue relentlessly.
Hopes that a national reconciliation project for
Iraq will work are fading due to disagreements over
the plan, coupled with an upsurge in violence,
according to politicians and ordinary Iraqis.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made a sweeping call
for reconciliation and dialogue with a 24-point plan
on June 26 which some hoped would bring the
country's warring factions together and help Iraq
transcend the increasing sectarian violence.
Maliki proposed an amnesty for insurgents on
condition that they have not killed Iraqi civilians
or multinational forces - although the latter point
has proved controversial. He also pledged to release
thousands of prisoners, review the committee
responsible for “de-Baathification”, dissolve armed
militias and open a dialogue with groups which have
boycotted politics since Saddam Hussein’s regime
fell in 2003.
Hundreds of prisoners have been released and
negotiations are taking place with insurgent groups,
militias and political leaders.
It is unclear which groups are involved in the
current talks.
But members of the National Assembly warn that
progress on Maliki's plan has slowed to a crawl,
while a national reconciliation conference sponsored
by the Arab League is continually being postponed.
"This project isn't moving forward," said Mahmood
Othman, a parliamentarian from the Kurdistan
Alliance. "The negotiating sides can't agree on
anything, even definitions."
Othman and Ridha Jawad Taqi, a parliamentary deputy
from Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance, of which the
prime minister is a member, said the main hurdles
include deciding which groups and actions should be
defined as terrorist and which as resistance. Some
organisations, including the powerful Sunni group,
the Association of Muslim Scholars, have rejected
Maliki's plan because it does not extend amnesty to
individuals who have fought the US-led multinational
forces.
"The militant groups involved believe in the right
of resistance against the occupier, and at the same
time they say they aren't terrorists or ‘takfiri’
[people who accuse others of not being Muslims],"
said Taqi.
Wounds from the past are not easily healed. Othman
noted that some groups such as Shia cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's bloc refuse to negotiate with Baathists
"whether or not their hands are stained with Iraqi
blood". The Shia community suffered enormously under
Saddam’s regime, some of whose supporters are now
involved in the insurgency.
Sunni Arabs are believed to be leading the
insurgency directed against the Iraqi government,
the multinational forces and Shias. On the other
side, Shia militias are believed to have infiltrated
the interior ministry and to have formed death
squads to kill Sunni Arabs. Some of the Shia
militias are also opposed to the foreign troop
presence.
The definitions are therefore politically loaded.
According to Othman, Shia leaders define certain
Sunni Arab groups as terrorists, while some Sunnis
described armed Shia groups as “militias” – meaning
they should be disarmed. Shia political forces with
armed wings view themselves as nationalists.
The National Accord Front is one of the Sunni
Arab-led groups that endorsed Maliki’s plan and is
involved in the talks. Like the other members of
parliament interviewed by IWPR, the National Accord
Front’s Shadha al-Abusi refused to call the plan a
failure.
"Relentless efforts are being made to ensure that
national reconciliation will be a success, and to
calm the crisis and the situation on the Iraqi
street," she said.
From al-Abusi’s perspective, the main problems lie
in dissolving the Shia militias, include Sadr's
forces.
Samia Aziz, who represents the Kurdistan Alliance in
parliament, believes that if Maliki’s plan is to
succeed, it will need the backing of four de facto
powers that currently dominate Iraq: the government,
the political parties, the clerics and tribal
figures.
"An agreement by these groups will halt the
terrorism which is ongoing and which serves a
foreign agenda that does not distinguish between
Sunni and Shia," said Aziz, who also warned that if
these groups do not sign up to the reconciliation
project, “the Iraqi street cannot be controlled”.
Despite the blockages, there has been a degree of
progress on Maliki’s plan. The parliamentary
committee dealing with reconciliation met for the
first time last weekend, and Saudi Arabia is to host
talks between senior Iraqi clerics, who are expected
to pledge to stop the bloodshed. Maliki has visited
neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United
Arab Emirates, which have ties with Iraq's powerful
tribal leaders.
Abusi noted that preparations are now under way for
reconciliation conference, which is now expected to
take place in Baghdad in August. The meeting was
first scheduled for February this year.
However, such technicalities mean little to the
Iraqi citizens who continue suffer from the chaos.
Government figures indicate that about 6,000 people
were killed in May and June as sectarian violence
rose.
"It's been two weeks since my shop ran out of goods,
and I can't go to the Jamila wholesale markets
because it's close to Shia and Sunni neighbourhoods
and the roads are unsafe," said Abbas Sayid Ali, a
shop owner in Baghdad’s al-Mamun neighbourhood.
"There are bogus checkpoints along the way, and
people are being killed because of their IDs. If you
are a Sunni passing through a Shia neighbourhood,
you will be killed - and vice versa," he added.
Mohammed Abid, a civil servant in the city, said,
"The kidnappings, murders and threats continue. It
seems there’s no end to it, and things are getting
worse. National reconciliation isn't being put into
practice on the ground."
Zaineb Naji is an IWPR contributor in Baghdad.
iwpr net
Top |
® 