Iraq:
Infighting Increases Instability
By Ali al-Fadhily
22 November, 2007
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD, Nov 21 (IPS)
- Increasing conflict and finger pointing between leading Shi'ite political
blocs are heightening instability in war-torn Iraq.
"It is said in the Arab
world that if thieves were not seen while steeling, they would be seen
while dividing the loot," Wayil Hikmet, an Iraqi historian in Baghdad
told IPS.
"That is what goes for
the accelerating collapse of the Iraqi political system that was made
in the USA. The thieves of the Green Zone are now giving me and my colleagues
good material to write down for the coming generations," Hikmet
said, referring to new scandals floating to the surface of the political
scene in recent days.
The Supreme Islamic Council
in Iraq (SICI) led by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, and The Sadr Movement led
by anti-occupation cleric Muqtada Al- Sadr are accusing each other of
committing serious crimes against humanity in the southern parts of
Iraq.
In early September, clashes
between Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and the Badr Organisation militia
of SIIC erupted in the holy city of Kerbala, 100 kilometres southwest
of Baghdad.
Kerbala, with a population
of about half a million, is a holy city, particularly for the Shias,
as it is home to the tomb of Hussein ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet
Muhammad.
The shrine of Imam Hussein
is a place of pilgrimage for many Shia Muslims.
The clashes between the two
powerful militias left at least 52 people dead and over 200 wounded.
"Hakim and Muqtada were
brought to the scene by the Americans who employed the two ambitious
clerics in order to fight side by side against any Iraqi resistance,"
Lukman Jassim, a former Baath Party member, told IPS in Baghdad.
"But it is well known
in Iraq that the two groups cannot put up with each other because of
the historic disputes between their fathers and grandfathers and the
conflict between them over power in Iraq. It was another American mistake,"
Jassim explained.
Jassim overlooks the fact
that there have thus far been two anti-occupation uprisings led by al-Sadr,
but his comments nevertheless underscore the rising tensions between
the two groups.
Bahaa Al-A'raji, an MP with
the Sadr movement, told journalists in Baghdad this week that his movement
is being targeted by the SICI that dominates the Ministry of Interior.
Many Sadr followers have been arrested and tortured by police loyal
to the SICI in different parts of Iraq, Al-A'raji said.
SICI operates militarily
via the Badr Organization militia, which was created in Tehran in 1982
and has been armed, trained and advised by Iranian intelligence since
then.
Recently in Baghdad, footage
was displayed on many local TV stations showing a woman with cut lips
accusing police of having tortured her and her two baby girls in Kerbala.
"It is a crime against
humanity committed by police for political reasons," Liwa' Smaissim,
the spokesman for the Sadr Movement in Kerbala, told IPS via telephone.
"The SICI is trying
to eliminate our movement so that it controls the scene on its own,"
Smaissim said.
Accusations regarding the
woman and her babies were aimed at a Major Ali of the Iraqi Police third
Battalion in Kerbala.
"This man and his battalion
have committed hundreds of crimes under the flag of maintaining peace
in the city," Smaissim told IPS, "our followers and other
citizens were exposed to torture and many others were assassinated."
Al-A'raji told IPS that he
contacted the Ministers of Interior and Defense to complain, but the
two ministers told him that the third Battalion does not take orders
from them.
"We are an official
unit of the Iraqi police and naturally we take orders from the Minister
of Interior," Major Ali, who was accused of the torture and other
crimes against civilians, told IPS via telephone.
"The CD distributed
of a woman and her babies been tortured is a fake and was made up by
a 'certain group' for political reasons. I was off sick during the period
of the presumed arrest of that family," Major Ali claimed.
"The third battalion
is an official force of the Ministry of the Interior and Major Ali is
targeted by a 'certain group' because he risked his life in order to
reveal the hundreds of crimes they committed here and else where,"
an Iraqi police general, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS,
stressing that, "This particular group has committed the ugliest
crimes in the Iraqi history and we are determined to put them all to
court."
Iraqi police general's references
to the Sadr movement show the now deep divisions between those who were
allies not long ago.
"I believe what is being
said by both sides," a general at the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad,
speaking under terms of anonymity, told IPS.
"It is true that the
Badr militia and the Mehdi Army have committed thousands of political
crimes against civilians as well as looting the economy of the country
all along the years of the U.S. occupation to Iraq," he said.
The general added, "Evidence
at the ministry show how terrible their behaviour was, but it was a
political will of all the Iraqi prime ministers, from Iyad Allawi, to
Ibrahim Jaafari, to the current Prime Minister [Nouri al-] Maliki to
conceal the facts for personal and political reasons. The Americans
definitely knew what was going on, but they had their reasons to keep
quiet about them too. It is the Iraqis who will pay their blood at the
end of the day."
(Ali, our correspondent in
Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based
specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)
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