Leader of Iraq's Badr Brigade says wants peace
Wed Jun 29, 2005
By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The leader of Iraq's Badr Brigade, a powerful Shi'ite militia which fought Saddam Hussein from exile in Iran, denied running hit squads against Sunnis and said peaceful politics was the only way forward for his group.
Hadi al-Amery shrugged off suggestions that he could play a major role in fomenting civil war in Iraq if U.S. troops left. The Badr Brigade's thousands of members only carried guns for their own protection, he told Reuters in an interview this week.
"We left our weapons in Iran, all of it, from tanks to artillery and even light weapons," he said.
"Most of what we have here now we bought from here to protect our (political) figures. The weapons we have now are only for the protection of our headquarters and our figures and are licensed by the government."
Although the group now calls itself the Badr Organisation and says it is a political movement, many Iraqis believe it is still a fighting force.
Badr is one of several sectarian and ethnic based forces in Iraq and is effectively seen as a component of the security forces, especially in the Shi'ite south. Uniformed Badr militiamen can been seen guarding Shi'ite leaders in Baghdad.
But Amery, 57 -- a diminutive figure who prefers business suits to camouflage fatigues as he sits outside the heavily-fortified National Assembly were he is a legislator -- is now keener on politics than war.
He joined the Badr Brigade when it was created in 1982 by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), now a driving force in the new U.S.-backed government, as its armed wing while in exile in Iran.
Amery, who was the field commander for Badr's operations, became general commander in 2002, before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 that toppled Saddam.
NO CHOICE
He said his group took up arms to defend Iraq's Shi'ite majority against oppression and torture under Saddam's regime and that since 2003 Badr had become a political movement.
"We had to take up arms, Saddam left us no choice. He wanted to kill us all in jails. We are proud that we bore arms and I am proud that I have defended my people and my country in difficult times," Amery said.
"Now our political platform is that we believe in the political process, writing the constitution on time, forming a constitutional government. We hope for justice and peace for all Iraqis."
Shi'ites and Kurds became Iraq's dominant political groups after January's landmark election and minority Sunnis, privileged under Saddam, have been sidelined.
Since then, Shi'ite leaders have accused Sunni Islamists and Saddam's Baathist allies of targeting Shi'ites in order to foment sectarian strife with the aim of regaining power.
Some Sunni groups -- among them Harith al-Dhari, head of the Muslim Clerics Association -- have accused the Badr Brigade of carrying out attacks on Sunnis. Sunni mosques closed for three days in Baghdad last month to protest against what clerics said was the killing of preachers by Shi'ite militias.
Amery denied all the accusations.
"We are a political party now. We took part in the elections, there is now a Badr group in the National Assembly and we control most of the provincial councils in Iraq. In the Baghdad council 28 out of 51 seats are for Badr and SCIRI."
"We do not conduct any military operation. It is not our duty and we have no right to do that. We respect the law."
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