Najaf
Prompts Outrage, Talk Of Secession Among Iraqi Politicians
By Lisa Ashkenaz
Croke
18 August, 2004
The NewStandard
From
the disrupted Iraqi National Conference in Baghdad to the low-key threat
of secession from Shi'ite leaders in Southern Iraq, the entire country's
future may be determined by events in the holy city of Najaf.
The National Conference,
where 1,300 Iraqi delegates were to meet for three days and elect the
100-member National Council, was extended for a day to accommodate an
attempt by several delegates to meet with rebel cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr
in Najaf.
The conference opened
Sunday to several delegates' insistence that the crises in Najaf be
immediately addressed. One delegate, Yahya Mussawi, rushed the speaker's
podium.
"It is time
that you heard us and we ask that military operations stop in Najaf
immediately and dialogue take place," he shouted before chief conference
organizer Fuad Massum had him forced down, according to Agence France-Presse.
AFP notes that Mussawi participated in efforts this spring to thwart
Al-Sadr's uprising.
Approximately 60
delegates were to leave the conference Tuesday for the 100-mile journey
south to Najaf, but due to security concerns, an eight-member team was
brought to the city by two US Army helicopters.
"This is not
a negotiation," delegation leader Sheikh Hussein Al-Sadr told reporters
upon arriving in Najaf. "This is a friendly mission to convey the
message of the National Conference."
Hussein Al-Sadr,
a distant relative of the rebel Shi'ite cleric, had laid out that message
the day before when he proposed that Muqtada's Medhi Army leave their
stronghold at the Immam Ali Shrine, disband and become a political party;
and in return be given clemency by the government, reports the Associated
Press.
"This is not
right," Hussein Al-Sadr said at the convention Monday. "We
demand Muqtada Al-Sadr withdraw from the holy shrine because it's not
the specific property of one person. It belongs to everybody."
Possibly undercutting Hussein Al-Sadr's proposal, US-appointed interim
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued a statement echoing the delegate's
conditions that Muqtada Al-Sadr's followers lay down their arms and
join Iraq's political process, but fell short of promising not to prosecute
Medhi fighters if they disband.
"The militia
must disarm with no preconditions," said Allawi in a statement
read aloud by the minister of state for provinces, Wael Abdel Latif,
following a cabinet meeting Monday, reports AFP.
Muqtada Al-Sadr
has already condemned Allawi for approving the overwhelming force that
devastated Najaf when US-led troops launched air and land assaults earlier
this month.
The rebel leader's
aides told reporters Tuesday that after making Baghdad's delegates wait
for three hours, Muqtada Al-Sadr refused to meet with them, citing the
ongoing hostilities. Several news agencies reported sporadic fighting
in Najaf throughout the day.
Threats of Secession
During a two-day truce for negotiations last week, Aljazeera TV reported
that several leaders in Iraq's besieged southern region were outraged
by the tactics used in Najaf and were threatening to secede from the
governing authority in Baghdad.
"This reaction
comes in response to the crimes committed against Iraqis by an illegal
and unelected government and occupation forces who claimed they came
to liberate Iraq, but it turned out that they have come to kill Iraqis,"
the head of the Misan governate council told Aljazeera last week. "Iyad
Allawi should not expect us to support him... We expected this government
to give us justice, democracy and freedom."
Ali Hamud Al-Musawi
also threatened to shut off Misan's oil supply "until Baghdad's
government restores its logic."
About half of Southern
Iraq's oil capacity did indeed come to a halt last week, according to
an August 10 report in South Africa's Daily News, though industry officials
said it was alleged threats from the Mehdi Army that led to a voluntary
precautionary shutdown. The production pause cut Iraq's daily capacity
approximately in half, an anonymous "South Oil Company official"
later told Reuters.
Then on Monday saboteurs
set ablaze an oil well near Basra. The Iraqi government was quick to
blame Mehdi operatives for the fire, though the tactic is not one Mehdi
forces have been known to use in the past. Apparently no one has claimed
responsibility for the strike.
Basra's deputy governor, Salam Uda Al-Maliki, also supported separating
from the central authority, stating that Iraq's interim government was
"responsible for the Najaf clashes," according to both The
Guardian and Aljazeera.
Like Al-Muwasi, Al-Maliki is considering using oil as a bargaining tool,
and has threatened to shut Basra's port, "informed sources"
told Aljazeera.
Dismissing the threat,
a state minister responded that as a municipal official, Basra's deputy
governor is not a representative of the government.
"We do not
recognize him. Let him say whatever he likes," Adnan Al-Janabi
told Aljazeera.
In Nassiriya, a
representative of cleric Al-Sadr said, "The authorities in Nassiriya
will no longer cooperate with Baghdad," reports The Guardian, which
also notes that secession could be legal under Iraq's interim constitution
if collectively chosen by three governorates.
While Article 53
(C) of the Transitional Administrative Law does allow groups "of
no more than three" the "right to form regions from amongst
themselves," the National Assembly must approve the move, and the
residents of the relevant governorates would have to vote to affirm
measure in a referendum.