Detentions
Escalate In Diwaniyah
By Ali al-Fadhily
28 November, 2007
Inter Press Service
DIWANIYAH, Iraq,
Nov 27 (IPS) - Detentions have become commonplace in Iraq,
but now more than ever before people are being detained after being
accused of membership in "militias supported by Iran."
"Hundreds of our men
were detained and accused of being militiamen supported by Iran,"
Mahmood Allawi, a 50-year-old lawyer from Diwaniyah, 160-kilomtres south
of Baghdad, told IPS.
"We are Arab Shiite
and Iran is as much an enemy to us as America! It is Iran that we fear
most after our leaders were killed by the so-called 'Iranian supported'
militias," Allawi said.
There has been a spike in
abductions being carried out by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Diwaniyah,
capital of Iraq’s Al-Qadisiyah province and home to a population
of roughly 400,000.
On Nov. 13, the International
Committee of the Red Cross estimated that 60,000 people are currently
detained in Iraq.
U.S. officials claim that
the military has been actively fighting against members of the Mehdi
Army militia of anti-occupation cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
People here told a different
story to IPS.
"If they mean the Mehdi
Army then they know them well because they worked together for about
two years now," Abdul Kazem Hussein, a former Iraqi officer who
fled to Baghdad from Diwaniyah recently told IPS.
Hussein claimed that the
U.S. military had been using members of the Mehdi Army to carry out
attacks on Sunnis in Baghdad, as well as areas south of Baghdad, like
Diwaniyah.
"But they are detaining
hundreds of people who have always been afraid of being drilled to death
by Mehdi Army murderers," Hussein explained, alluding to a practice
used by Mehdi Army members of using electric drills to torture Sunni
men they capture.
"They are detaining
those who have not accepted the influence of Iran in the city,"
Hussein said.
Bassam Al-Shareef, a spokesman
for the Shiite party -- Al-Fadhila -- criticized the campaign and warned
the Iraqi government of the consequences if the campaign against the
Mehdi Army continues this way.
"We believe the government
should take slower actions to contain the militias rather than lead
such a harsh campaign," Shareef told IPS in Baghdad.
The leaders of the Iraqi
Army unit in charge of the crackdown -- the Al-Baqir Brigade -- said
they are determined to conduct their offensive to the end.
"We will detain all
suspects in Diwaniyah and chase those who fled to hide in the surrounding
villages," Colonel Othman of the brigade’s staff told journalists
in Baghdad recently, "Our intelligence will lead us to all those
who are wanted for questioning."
The question of whether the
offensive is targeting the Mehdi Army or the Arab Shiites in Diwaniyah
was best answered by local politician Hassan Al-Mayali who recently
fled to Baghdad.
"This offensive is targeting
all those who do not follow Iranian Cleric [Grand Ayatollah] Ali Al-Sistani,"
Mayali told IPS, "Americans, Iranians and the so-called Iraqi government
felt the danger of those Shiites who rejected the influence of what
they call the peaceful clerics and they are pressing hard to make them
accept their leadership. Any Iraqi who does not keep his mouth shut
will be detained or assassinated so that the separation plan and the
ever lasting occupation will succeed."
Many Iraqis interviewed felt
sure that after the bombing of the Golden Shrines in Samarra in February
2006, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) --
the Badr Organization -- worked with the Mehdi Army to kill thousands
of Sunnis.
Millions were also displaced
from their homes in cities of southern Iraq -- including Baghdad.
"Muqtada sold us to
Iran," a former member of the Mehdi Army, speaking on condition
of anonymity, told IPS in Diwaniyah.
"We are Arabs and the
wave of killings conducted by us was committed for money paid by the
Badr Organization and Iran. Now the Badr Organization is getting the
American Army to help detain and kill us because we did not follow the
orders given to us to kill our Sunni brothers," the former Mehdi
Army member said.
"We are still obeying
the orders given by our leader Muqtada Al Sadr to maintain peace, but
that will not be forever," a member of the movement, speaking on
condition of anonymity, in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad told IPS, "They
[SIIC] are trying our patience and there will be a strong reaction if
they do not stop their organized campaign against us."
On Nov. 25, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
-- the powerful Shia cleric who leads the SIIC -- defended Iran against
U.S. accusations that the country is involved in anti-U.S. attacks in
Iraq.
"These are only accusations
raised by the multinational forces and I think these accusations need
more proof," al-Hakim, the head of the largest Shiite party in
Iraq, told reporters.
Al-Hakim has established
ties with Iran and is one of its staunchest supporters in Iraq, but
he also has been a major partner in U.S. efforts during the occupation.
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