New
Militias Push Govt Back Further
By Ali Al-Fadhily
& Dahr Jamail
04 October, 2006
Inter Press Service
RAMADI, Oct 3 (IPS) - Reports of the setting up of
U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening
chaos within Iraq.
Some Sunni leaders from the
troubled al-Anbar province west of Baghdad recently met away from their
tribes to set up new militias, according to local reports.
These new armed groups have
received early praise from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki and
U.S. officials. The United States had earlier called for the disarming
of all militias for the sake of social peace and reconciliation, but
that policy has clearly changed. The occupation forces now back both
Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country.
These new groups are drawing
strong condemnation from other Sunni tribal chiefs.
"They are a group of
thieves who are arming thieves, and this is something dangerous and
nasty," Sheikh Sa'adoon, chief of a large Sunni tribe near Khaldiyah
city in al-Anbar told IPS. "This only means we will have more disturbances
here, and it could create local civil war."
Another tribal leader in
the area, speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity, said "they
are only doing this in order to kill as many Sunnis as possible, and
this time with Sunni hands."
He said true tribal leaders
should lead any militias they form, rather than issue orders from the
Green Zone, the U.S. and Iraqi government enclave in Baghdad.
"Leaders should lead
their soldiers on the battlefield, but those so-called sheikhs are well
protected behind concrete walls inside the dirty zone (green zone),"
he said. "How can they win a battle by remote control?"
The controversial move appears
to have brought widespread condemnation also from academics, Iraqi military
leaders, and even Shia politicians. "It is a new way of making
millions of dollars," a professor at al-Anbar University in Ramadi
told IPS.
Brigadier-General Jassim
Rashid al-Dulaimi from the new Iraqi Army in Anbar province told IPS:
"I cannot imagine 30,000 more guns in the Iraqi field. I hope they
will reject the idea. Iraq needs more engineers and clean politicians
to solve the dilemma of the existing militias rather than recruiting
new ones to kill more Iraqis. The idea sounds to me as turning the country
into a mercenary recruitment centre."
Shia leader Jaafar al-Assadi
said the move will bring more violence. "Al-Anbar will fight even
more now with the guns given to those fools," he told IPS. "They
are surely going to sell their weapons to the terrorists or surrender
to them soon or later."
Some of these group leaders
have distanced themselves from the new militias. Sheikh Hamid Muhanna,
chief of the large tribe al-Bu Alwan appeared on al-Jazeera denying
the creation of such militia. He said he and the other sheikhs are in
control of their tribes, and those who met al-Maliki speak for themselves
only.
The main Sunni religious
group, the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), remains staunchly opposed
to any continuance to the occupation.
"It is all in the hands
of the Americans, we are trying to cover the sun with a piece of glass,"
Sheikh Ahmed from AMS told IPS in Baghdad. "The occupation power
is too strong for any player to make a major change, and so we should
believe in our own capabilities without dreaming of useful solutions
from our enemy."
The Association has consistently
refused to take part in Iraqi politics under U.S. occupation.
The new militias are riding
the back of what is controversially referred to as federalism, under
which each group appears headed its own way.
Thafir al-Ani, official spokesman
for al-Tawafuq, a major Sunni parliamentary group, resigned as chairman
of a constitution committee last week. "I would have had to take
part in dividing Iraq under the flag of federalism, which would have
put a mark in my history as one of those who established the dividing
of my country," he said.
The solutions being put forth
are all driven by personal and sectarian interests, and fail to consider
what is best for the country, Maki al-Nazzal, political analyst from
Fallujah told IPS.
"The change that could
take place is an Iraqi people's 'Orange revolution', which could occur
with all Iraqis, regardless of their ID information," al-Nazzal
said. "But that would be very dangerous without international protection
to the people who would do it because Iraqi rulers today, together with
the U.S. Army, could massacre demonstrators."
The 'Orange revolution' was
the name given to public protests across Ukraine in November 2004 against
a government and an election seen as illegitimate. The revolution was
widely believed to have had U.S. support.
A member of an Iraqi Human
Rights non-governmental organisation who asked to be identified as Ibrahim
said the United Nations must take a stronger stand in Iraq.
"The international community
must take its real role in the country," he told IPS. "UNAMI's
(UN Assistance Mission for Iraq) hands are tied, and they are only monitoring
the disastrous situation without doing anything to help stop the bleeding
of Iraq."
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