http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1837866,00.html
Monday, Sep. 01, 2008
TIME Magazine
US Allies Angry at Anbar Handover
By Rania Abouzeid / Baghdad
Anbar province was once one of the most violent and volatile regions
of Iraq, accounting for hundreds of U.S. casualties. On Monday,
however, the province -- quieted by the U.S. military in alliance
with Sunni tribal sheiks, the so-called Sunni Awakening or Sahwa
movement -- was turned back to Iraqi government rule.
Washington may be glad to hand over the formerly al-Qaeda infested
area and the Shi'te dominated government in Baghdad happy to receive
it. But not everyone is celebrating. A leader of the Awakening
movement narrows his eyes and tightens his jaw at the idea of the
U.S. hand-over. "We wanted it to be postponed but the decision had
already been made by the government and we cannot change it," says
Sheikh Mohammad Mahmood al Natah, the spokesperson for the Awakening
Council. The hand-over, originally scheduled for June, took place on
Monday, making Anbar the 11th of Iraq's 18 provinces, and the first
Sunni region, to return to the central government's control. It's a
measure of the growing security gains in the war-scarred country,
but simmering intra-Sunni tensions in Anbar are bubbling.
Only a handful of the 40 or so Awakening leaders attended the
ceremony in Ramadi, a snub that Sheikh Natah says was intended as a
clear message to the government. At heart is a power struggle
between the Awakening council and the Iraqi Islamic Party, made up
of Sunni exiles who are allied with the Shi'ite prime minister,
Nouri al-Maliki. The party holds 36 of the Anbar council's 41 seats.
Those posts are up for grabs if a slow-moving electoral law is
approved by Iraq's bickering parliamentarians and the provincial
elections that were slated for October take place later this year.
Unlike the last time around in 2005, the Sunni tribal elders are
eager to contest the polls, and say they wanted U.S. troops to
remain in Anbar until after the elections to help ensure a free and
fair ballot. They also want their key ally, police chief Major
General Tareq Youssef al A'sal al Dulaimi, reinstated to the
position he was ousted from just a few days ago. (Dulaimi was
removed for unspecified "administrative" reasons.) The Awakening
members say Dulaimi's sudden removal, which was approved by the
Interior Ministry, has cemented their fears that their local Sunni
rivals in the Iraqi Islamic Party are maneuvering to gain control of
Anbar's 28,000-strong police force and purge it of tribal loyalists.
They say Dulaimi's replacement, Riad al Karboole (who will his
assume his duties after the hand-over) is an Islamic Party man, and
they fear the police force will be infiltrated by their extremist
Sunni enemies. "If the Islamic Party continues to pressure the
government to remove the Awakening members from the security forces
... then there is a high likelihood that Anbar will return to
violence," Sheikh Natah says.
The Iraqi Islamic Party dismisses the sheikhs' concerns. "Some
people make accusations without solid evidence," says Omar
Abdul-Sattar, a parliamentarian and the Islamic Party spokesman.
Abdul-Sattar says that the decision to remove Dulaimi was a done
deal between all of the various factions in Anbar, including the
tribes, as well as the central government. "This is old talk, Tareq
al A'sal has been replaced by consensus," he says.
But the Awakening members don't see it that way. "The tribes are
angry with the government's decision," says Colonel Jubeir Rashid,
the security adviser to the Awakening Council and a member of the
Anbar police force. Tribal elders see Dulaimi's removal as part of a
wider government crackdown against the Awakening Council and the
Sons of Iraq, the 100,000-strong, largely Sunni former militiamen
who are each paid a monthly stipend of $300 by the U.S. to help keep
the peace. In the past few weeks, the Iraqi army has moved against
the groups in Diyala province, detaining several leaders, and
disarming and dismantling several of their checkpoints. There are
reportedly plans to detain hundreds of Sons of Iraq members in the
coming weeks.
Anbar's tribal leaders say they feel threatened. "Our reward for
defeating Al Qaeda is that we've been sidelined," says Sheikh Hamid
al Hayess, a senior member of the movement. "We are sensing a change
toward us," says Colonel Rashid. "The government should help us, not
try to break us with its decisions."