News
from the Arab part of Iraq
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Iraq Shiites use festival to call for
regional autonomy
9.9.2006
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Karbala, Iraq,
September 9, -- Pilgrims left the Shiite holy city
of Karbala after the peaceful end of a major
festival where their leaders reaffirmed
controversial calls for an autonomous region like
that of the Kurds in Kurdistan (northern Iraq).
Prominent Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim used the
celebration of the birth of the Mahdi, a 9th century
Shiite imam, to renew his call for an autonomous
Shiite region in central and southern Iraq --
something the nation's once dominant Sunni Arab
minority fears.
"Federalism will lead to stability and security in
Iraq," Hakim told worshippers during the main weekly
prayers in Karbala Friday.
"Look at the example of federalism in Kurdistan, it
is evidence of the success of this system."
Hakim leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, one of the most powerful parties
in the ruling coalition. |
Iraqi Shiite leader
Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the head of parliament's
largest bloc,
Photo:AFP |
"We support it strongly because it would keep
dictatorship from happening again -- all are
entitled to enjoy federalism," he said.
Sunni Arabs fear that they will lose out if the
Shiites are allowed broad autonomy in the oil-rich
south and the Kurds are allowed to extend their
existing autonomous region to incorporate the
northern oilfields around Kirkuk city.
The issue is to be debated in parliament on Sunday
with the first reading of a draft law presented by
the main Shiite bloc.
Sunnis have called for the debate to be delayed
while they press their own demands for amendments to
the constitution.
Shiite politicians insist a fully federal system
will not lead to Iraq breaking up, but rather take
some of the heat out of a bitter sectarian conflict
which has pushed the country to the brink of civil
war.
In Karbala, south of the capital, officials oversaw
the departure of the tens of thousands of pilgrims,
providing scores of trucks to transport them back to
homes around the country, Governor Aqil al-Khazali
said.
He added that the heavy security measures that
ensured a peaceful conclusion to the ceremony would
remain in place for now.
In contrast to the relative peace further south,
Baghdad saw a string of bomb attacks on Saturday
that claimed four lives, including two bystanders
killed in an early morning attack on a US patrol in
the center of the city.
A car bomber also attempted to ram his vehicle into
a police station in Waziriyah, killing one policemen
and wounding dozens.
A technician with the state-owned Sabah newspaper
was shot dead on his way to work in the capital.
Three US soldiers were wounded in a bomb attack in
east Baghdad's Jadida neighborhood.
In the northern oil Kurdish city of Kirkuk, twin
blasts killed four people and wounded 16.
The bombers detonated the second device as a police
patrol arrived on the scene of the first blast,
killing one officer and wounding two, said
Lieutenant Colonel Akram Abdullah of Kirkuk police.
In ousted president Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, one civilian was shot dead, police said.
South of Baghdad, authorities discovered the bodies
of five people who had been shot dead, four of them
in the town of Suwayrah, which has become a common
dumping ground for victims of sectarian killings.
AFP
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