| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
29 May 2005 08:18:30 AM |
| Object: |
Risk of Civil War Spreads Fear Across Iraq. |
From The Los Angeles Times, 5/29/05:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mood29may29,1,7977330.story?page=2&coll=la-headlines-world
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Risk of Civil War Spreads Fear Across Nation
Many worry that strains between Sunnis and Shiites could ignite a
conflict that would overwhelm U.S. troops and the government.
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD --
Explosions rip through marketplaces, scattering blood and vegetables
and leaving women wailing in the alleys.
Bodies bob in rivers and are dug up from garbage dumps and parks.
Kidnappers troll the streets, sirens howl through morning prayers and
mortar rounds whistle against skylines of minarets.
Iraqis awake each day to the sounds of violence.
With little respite, many wonder whether strange, terrible forces are
arrayed against them.
They fear that weeks of sectarian and clan violence, claiming the
lives of all types from imams to barefoot fishermen, are a prelude to
civil war.
"I'm worried 24 hours a day," said Zainab Hassan, a university student
majoring in computer science.
"Whenever I hear bomb or shooting, I call my mother and husband to
check if they're OK. I can see a civil war coming, it's obvious.
Everybody is talking about it. We have to be more careful."
Iraqis such as Abu Mohammed, who sells books along the Tigris River,
struggle to comprehend how the euphoria of January's election has
withered so quickly.
They find contradictions rather than answers.
Life has become a vicious thrum, with boys clinging to courtyard walls
and gun battles beneath the date palms appearing live on TV.
Interviews with Iraqis from Basra to Baghdad to Mosul suggest that
much of the nation fears that intensifying strains between Sunni and
Shiite Muslims could ignite a conflict that would overwhelm the
increasingly unpopular Iraqi government and 140,000 U.S. troops.
Abu Mohammed blames, among others, Saddam Hussein, who, even from his
jail cell, seems to taunt the country.
"Saddam created hostile sentiments between Sunni and Shiite," Mohammed
said.
"It was like a fire hidden under a cover and waiting to turn into a
blaze. The remnants of Saddam Hussein are now trying to stoke and
enlarge this fire. I blame both the Shiites and the Sunnis for playing
parts in stirring up hostilities."
Nearly 700 people have been killed in car bombings and by shootings
and beheadings in the last month.
What concerns U.S. officials and ordinary Iraqis is that militant
leaders such as Abu Musab Zarqawi are attempting to instigate a
two-track war: one, the continuing battle between insurgents and
American and Iraqi forces, and another between Shiite and Sunni Arabs
that could possibly draw in Kurds from the north.
"It's time for Iraqis to stand together to foil the dirty attempts of
the enemies to implant sectarian war on this injured country," said
Naim Salman, a civil servant in Baghdad.
"The government is trying its best, but it is still not enough. It is
a new government and it needs time, especially when terrorists are
infiltrating ministries."
The Sunnis were the beneficiaries and power behind Hussein's Baathist
regime.
Many of them, including influential leaders, opposed the
Shiite-dominated government that followed Hussein and formed the heart
of the insurgency.
Some Sunnis have begun to rejoin the political process.
But so far, the government has been unable to persuade the nation's
minority Sunni population to abandon its suspicions, and the squabbles
in the corridors of the National Assembly have inspired violence tied
to religion and clan.
Nafi Alfartoosi, editor of a newspaper in Samawah in Shiite-dominated
southern Iraq, said, "The failure of the government to stop sectarian
terrorism of Sunnis against Shiites has deepened the gap between the
government and the people. I am sure that many of the millions who
voted are sorry for going out on Jan. 30. This weakness in stopping
sectarian terrorism and halting bloodshed is encouraging" those
seeking a civil war.
Sunni and Shiite organizations, along with Iraqi Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jafari, have sought to calm tensions over the last week.
But the effort is hindered by spiraling violence that since April 29
has included the killing of at least 10 Sunni and Shiite clerics,
among them Mohammed Tahir Allaq, a representative of one of the
nation's top Shiite leaders, Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed Hakim.
Some Shiite and Sunni leaders have blamed each other for the
assassinations.
Images of the coffins of clerics being carried through the streets
have unnerved a public that has had scant peace since Hussein was
toppled two years ago and the country occupied by U.S.-led forces that
quickly encountered an insurgency.
The January election brought a brief gust of normality, but that has
shattered with the surge in car bombings.
In a Baghdad University poll taken earlier this year, more than 80% of
the Iraqis questioned expected their government to gain strength in
coming months.
That has dropped to 45% today.
With the insurgency killing more civilians, anger against American
forces has intensified.
Many Iraqis view the U.S. as an unwanted godfather who, despite his
prowess and streams of military convoys, can't provide the basics let
alone protect them from extremists who badger the nation with Internet
screeds and jihadist rants on the radio.
"I only want to put this question to you," said Sana Abdul-Kareem, a
dentist with four children.
"Why can't the U.S., with all its might and capabilities, impose
security here? How come with all our oil they cannot provide us with
electricity? My son was so happy when the American soldiers first
came. But after two years of failure to make good on their promises,
he abhors them."
Baghdad resident Ali Jalal said:
"The Americans are behind these problems. They don't want the country
to be stabilized.... The Iraqi government is like a doll in the hands
of the Americans."
Many Iraqis choose denial to cope with the seething times around them.
A Shiite will tell you he is married to a Sunni, or a Sunni to a
Shiite.
They will tell you their families are an intermingling of Iraq's
classes and religions and that they have lived in harmony for
generations.
But every day new families line up outside morgues and new markers are
added to graveyards.
They blame it on terrorists and outside forces, who, they say,
manipulate their lives much as Hussein did.
"It's a policy of divide and conquer being applied by our occupiers,"
said Abu Izz, a Baghdad antiques dealer who was born in Fallouja.
A civil war will not succeed because Iraqis are all brothers and
relatives, he added.
"You may not believe this, but some of my relatives are promujahedin
[Sunnis], and others are members of the Badr Brigade [Shiites] and
others are clergy. This is how we are interrelated."
"Iraq is one nation, one land and one heart," said Sinaa Ali Musa, a
state worker from Samawah.
But Musa, a Shiite, conceded there were divisions.
"I think the Shiites are being subjected to all kinds of terrorism
because the Sunnis are losing power."
Others consider Sunnis the victims.
"There has been a flagrant violation of Sunni rights," said Saad Abdul
Aziz Siqar, a Sunni from Basra.
"This is affecting relationships between the two sects and could lead
to war.... The Shiites have power and authority over us and are
treating us like a minority."
Navigating such chaos psychologically, and even on rural roads and
city streets, has trapped many Iraqis.
"It's the same problem everyday -- traffic, traffic, roads are closed
and in addition to that, we have national guards aiming their weapons
toward us," said Tanya Mazin, a student at Baghdad University.
"We are living in stress and fear. I do not think this will end one
day because it's going from bad to worse."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you, Mr. presidunce.
Harry
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