Monday, May 09, 2005
Iraq plunging into sectarian violence
Atul Aneja
The emergence of a number of power centres, many of which operate with American help, could set in motion a long-drawn civil war.
THE EMERGENCE of a new Shia-dominated government led by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has opened Iraq's sectarian wounds. In the days since Mr. Jaafari announced a partial Cabinet line-up, violence has escalated. Suicide bombers, some driving cars laden with explosives or on foot, launched a spate of attacks, killing more than 200 people and wounding hundreds more. Sunni groups, who have spearheaded the Iraqi resistance but have found themselves marginalised from mainstream politics, have been blamed.
The new wave of violence has shown a pattern, reflecting the power equations that lock Iraq's many religious and ethnic groups.
Kurds new targets
Shia bodies have been frequently targeted in the past, but Kurds have borne the brunt in the recent attacks. Marginalised for centuries, Shias and Kurds have established a political alliance that dominates the new government, effectively displacing from the core Sunnis who have historically ruled Iraq.
On May 1, in Talafar — a city close to the Syrian border — a suicide bomber ploughed his car into a tent filled with mourners gathered for the funeral of a slain Kurdish leader. About 30 persons were killed and another 50 wounded. Kurdish officials said gunmen prevented ambulances from taking the victims to hospital, resulting in street battles.
Three days later, a suicide bomber on foot attacked Kurds queuing up outside the office of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which doubled as a police recruitment centre, in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Around 60 people were killed in the strike, the worst attack after February 28, when 110 would-be recruits were killed outside a clinic in the city of Hilla. Relations between Kurds and Sunni Arabs are already on edge, especially in the northern oil city of Kirkuk. The Kurds have claimed Kirkuk as theirs, but this has been contested by Sunni Arabs, settled in the area in large numbers by the Baathist government of the former President, Saddam Hussein. The latest attacks are expected to deepen tensions between the two communities and are likely to encourage Kurds to bid for an independent Kurdistan.
Sunnis' resistance
Sunni groups known to be close to the resistance have expressed their distrust in the new Shia-led government of Mr. Jaafari. "We don't believe that the government will solve the problems of an occupied Iraq. We don't trust the government," Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a powerful Sunni organisation known to be close to the resistance, was quoted as saying.
Latent Sunni-Shia tensions have now spilled into the open. On May 4, rioting broke out between Shia and Sunni students on the Baghdad University campus after the killing of a Shia student leader. Gunmen killed Masar Sarhan, a 24-year-old, after he had invited students for celebrations inside the campus following the appointment of a new cabinet by Mr. Jaafari.
The unrest could now spread to other campuses as many Shia students have called for avenging Sarhan's death.
The emergence of a spate of armed militias and groups, including many controlled by the Americans, operating from Baghdad's high security Green Zone, has added an ominous new dimension to Iraq's sectarian politics. Among them, the Special Police Commandos with at least 10,000 men has acquired a high profile. The group is known for exercising the "Salvador option" — a policy of targeted high-profile assassinations practised by U.S.-trained death squads in El Salvador. It is led by Adnan Thavit al-Samarrai, a loyalist of former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. In 1996, he was part of a group that made an aborted coup attempt to topple Mr. Hussein's Government.
Two other militias under Mr. Allawi are the Muthana Brigade and the Defenders of Khadamiya. While Mr. Allawi is not part of the new government, he is likely to play his part as a powerful American-backed power centre.
The U.S. Marines have nurtured the Iraqi Freedom Guard and the Freedom Fighters. These militias include a large number of Shias from the south, and have been deployed against Sunnis in the troubled Anbar province, the epicentre of the resistance.
The Americans have also been manoeuvring the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, who reportedly fought the Sunnis in Fallujah during the American-led assault on the city in November.
Outside the U.S. fold, the Mehdi army of Shia leader Moqtada Al-Sadr controls the streets in many Shia strongholds and helps provide de facto local level administration. The southern Iraqi city of Basra is a new stronghold that Shia militias now control.
The emergence of a number of power centres, many of which operate with American help, has provided Iraq with the ingredients that could set in motion a long-drawn civil war.
Copyright © 2005, The Hindu.