Re: Iraqi groups getting their act together

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2003-06-06 20:08 -0500, you wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/06/international/worldspecial/06IRAQ.html?ei=
> 1&en=721e6f99f6afeb67&ex=1055921337&pagewanted=print&position=
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
> June 6, 2003
> Leading Iraqi Shiite Cleric Emerges to Meet U.S. Ally
> By PATRICK E. TYLER
>
>
> AJAF, Iraq, June 5 - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sestani, one of the most senior
> Shiite clerics in Iraq and the world, stepped into the political fray for
> the first time since the war today, meeting with a Kurdish leader who has
> enjoyed close ties to Washington and calling for elections to a national
> assembly for Iraqis to produce a new constitution.
>
> Iraqi political figures who attended the meeting said the grand ayatollah
> was critical of postwar conditions in Iraq. The allied campaign to end the
> tyranny and oppression of Saddam Hussein "is like an occupation, not a
> liberation, as the people have been told," one of those who attended quoted
> him as saying.
>
> Ayatollah Sestani spoke today during a meeting with Massoud Barzani, the
> Kurdish chieftain who is among the former opponents of Mr. Hussein who are
> now stepping up pressure on American and British occupation authorities to
> allow an Iraqi political process to move forward quickly.

This does look significant politically. For one of the Kurdish leaders to
travel to Shiite territory shows a high level of trust. But SCIRI the
dominant organisation of the Shiites, has a well balanced political
perspective about working with other groups.

The Shiites appear to have maintained a religious based organisation
despite severe repression in 1991. They appear to be less a focus of the
armed struggle at the moment. If they make an alliance with non-Shiites
then the US has lost one excuse for not withdrawing its occupation.

The BBC yesterday reported 30 US soldiers dead since victory. It identified
not only Fallujah, which is Sunni, but north and west Baghdad (the east is
more overwhelmingly Shiite)

Barzani has of course benefited greatly from US domination, but this
political alliance coupled with the possibility of several deaths of US
soldiers per week, plus mounting embarrassment over absent WMD could make
the politics of Iraq look rather different in 6 months time.

Chris Burford
London