A radical Shi’ite cleric called on his followers on Thursday to end clashes with Shi’ite rivals so that stalled talks on a new Constitution can proceed. Clashes continued for a second day after the cleric’s office in Najaf was burned and four of his supporters were killed.
Following the appeal by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leaders of the country’s political factions met in the Green Zone to try to hammer out an agreement on the draft Constitution on the final day of an extension granted on Monday night by Parliament after Sunni Arabs blocked a vote on the accord accepted by Shi’ite and Kurdish negotiators
After meeting 15 Sunni members of the Constitution-drafting committee, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani said consensus on the new Constitution could be reached soon.
Speaking to reporters in his home in Najaf, al-Sadr urged ”all believers to spare the blood of the Muslims and to return to their homes”.
”I will not forget this attack on the office … but Iraq is passing through a critical and difficult period that requires unity,” he said.
He demanded that Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), condemn ”what his followers have done”. Sciri has denied any role in the attack on al-Sadr’s office.
”I urge the believers not to attack innocent civilians and not to fall for Americans’ plots that aim to divide us,” al-Sadr said. ”We are passing through a critical period and a political process.”
Start of crisis
The crisis erupted on Wednesday when al-Sadr’s supporters tried to reopen his office across the street from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred Shi’ite shrine in Iraq. Rivals tried to stop the move, fights broke out and the office was set alight.
Armed attacks against offices of al-Sadr’s movement and Sciri then spread across the Shi’ite heartland of central and southern Iraq. Twenty-one pro-al-Sadr MPs and three top government officials announced they were stopping official duties in protest of the Najaf attack.
Legislator Bahaa al-Araji said on Thursday the suspension will continue ”until the leader’s demands are met and until the investigation is over”.
Before al-Sadr spoke, the violence continued on Thursday.
Al-Sadr supporters in Diwaniyah, 170km south of Baghdad, occupied parts of the city, setting up checkpoints and firing on police and rival groups, police Captain Hussein Hakim said.
Some residents were fleeing to nearby villages, he said.
Sciri members torched a building belonging to al-Sadr’s movement in the Baghdad suburb of Nahrawan, police Lieutenant Ayad Othman said. In retaliation, al-Sadr’s followers set fire to an office of Sciri’s Badr Brigade militia in Baghdad’s heavily Shi’ite neighbourhood of Sadr City.
Clashes were also under way in Amarah, where al-Sadr’s militiamen attacked the headquarters of the Badr group with mortars. Five attackers were killed, al-Sadr officials claimed.
Armed clashes broke out before dawn in Basra, the country’s second-largest city and the major metropolis of the south, but the city settled down after daybreak, police and residents said.
The new violence came as the United States Defence Department announced it was ordering 1 500 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq to provide security for the scheduled October 15 referendum on the proposed Constitution and the December national elections.
Move to contain crisis
Iraqi political figures moved quickly to contain the crisis, which flared as the country was also facing a virulent insurgency led by Sunni Arabs in central, northern and western Iraq.
Talabani, a Kurd, telephoned al-Sadr on Thursday to appeal for restraint. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a Shi’ite who has cultivated ties to al-Sadr, condemned the attack that triggered the uprising and promised that ”the government will start an immediate investigation” into the incident.
During his press conference on Thursday, al-Sadr criticised the Shi’ite-led government, in which Sciri plays a major role.
”What we want is that the voice of people be louder than the voice of the government,” he said. ”There are elements who fired shots near Imam Ali shrine, and we know who are stationed near the shrine. Anyone who committed aggression on the al-Sadr office will receive his punishment.”
Al-Sadr also criticised portions of the draft Constitution, saying it is not strong enough against Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party. Al-Sadr also spoke out against federalism, which is also opposed by the Sunni Arabs.
”We reject federalism and if America has schemes, it should not try to implement those schemes at once,” al-Sadr said.
Outspoken opposition
Al-Sadr, the 30-ish son of an eminent cleric believed to have been murdered by Saddam Hussein’s regime, has been among the most outspoken Shi’ites opposed to the US military presence in Iraq.
Beginning in April last year, he led two Shi’ite uprisings against US-led forces after the occupation authorities closed his newspaper, arrested key aides and issued a warrant charging him in the assassination of a rival cleric in Najaf.
Hundreds died in the uprisings. Since then, the fiery young cleric has emerged as a major political figure. The warrant against him has been largely forgotten.
The internal Shi’ite crisis occurred as time was running out for Shi’ite and Kurdish leaders to persuade the Sunni Arabs to accept the draft Constitution. Sunnis oppose several parts, chief among them a plan that could lead to a giant Shi’ite federated state in central and southern Iraq.
On Wednesday, Talabani said stability cannot be achieved without consensus among Iraq’s Shi’ites, Sunnis Arabs and Kurds.
Sciri’s leader called for such a federated state this month, but Sunni Arabs fear that would lead to the disintegration of Iraq.
Al-Sadr also opposes federalism.
Sunni Arabs also insist that the factions agree unanimously on the draft Constitution. But if al-Sadr’s allies in Parliament continue their boycott, it would be difficult for the draft’s supporters to argue that it has the support of all Iraqi communities. — Sapa-AP