Iraqi government fragments
further By Ali al-Fadhily
BAGHDAD - As sectarian tensions escalate
politically, a new fissure is appearing within the
already fragmented Iraqi government.
Adnan
al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni political bloc the
Accordance Front in the Iraqi Parliament, has been
placed under house arrest by Iraqi and US security
forces in the Adil neighborhood west of Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces also detained his
son - Makki - and 45 of his
guards. They were accused of
manufacturing car bombs and killing Sunni militia
members in the neighborhood who have been working
with the US military.
"Two car bombs were
found at Dulaimi's office area ready to be blasted
and we believe they were going to be used against
the Awakening Forces [men the US military is
paying to work with them] in the Adil Quarter,"
Kassim Ata, spokesman for the Baghdad Crackdown
Force - which is part of the Awakening Forces -
told Inter Press Service (IPS). "Dulaimi's office
guards testified against his house guards and so
we arrested all of them as well as al-Dulaimy's
son Makki," Ata said.
Prime Minister Nuri
Al-Maliki has ordered the fifth brigade of the
Iraqi Army to "guard" Al-Dulaimy's house.
Abdul Karim al-Samarraie of the Accordance
Front told reporters that the group would not
return to parliament - which it abandoned on
August 1 and only returned to very recently -
until Dulaimi was allowed to leave his home. On
Saturday al-Samarraie stated, "When I went to meet
him I was stopped and told that he is under house
arrest. This is a violation of the rights of an MP
who wants to come to the Parliament."
The
Accordance Front warned that the crackdown against
them could derail Iraq's already struggling
political process, and the Front said in a
statement before walking out of Parliament, "It
will increase political tension at a time when
Baghdad is relatively peaceful."
"Al-Dulaimi is a terrorist just like other
Sunnis who pretended to be participating in
politics and peaceful efforts of reconciliation,"
Haydar Kathum, a follower of the Supreme Islamic
Iraqi Council (SIIC) - a Shi'ite political and
religious group led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim - told
IPS in the Karrada area of Baghdad. "Sunnis are
all terrorists, but they pushed some of their
leaders to the Parliament so that they can fight
the new Iraq project from the inside."
Similar accusations toward members of the
Sunni political group - which holds 44 seats of
the 275 seats in Parliament - were heard
throughout 2007 from Shi'ite groups in the Iraqi
Parliament, especially the Shi'ite Coalition led
by the SIIC and the Da'wa Party, led by Maliki.
"This man [al-Dulaimi] should be held
responsible for the terrorist acts that he
conducted without any consideration for the
possible political consequences," Jalal
al-Sagheer, one of the Shi'ite leaders of the SIIC
in Baghdad, told IPS. But, "What happened in the
Adil neighborhood must be dealt with away from
politics", al-Sagheer stressed.
Sagheer
also referred to the new SIIC's policy to
eliminate "yesterday's allies" as they are no
longer necessary given the completion of sectarian
cleansing of Baghdad and other mixed areas of
Iraq.
The other side of the story comes
from Dulaimy's supporters. "Doctor Adnan
al-Dulaimi is a well-known academic in Iraq and
the whole Islamic world," his nephew, Laurance
al-Dulaimi, told IPS, "He worked hard to establish
peace in Iraq and he exposed himself to threats by
al-Qaeda by joining the political operation in
Iraq. It is unfair that he is rewarded with such
cheap accusations by those cheap corrupt officials
and politicians."
Dulaimi has been
targeted many times by Iraqi resistance fighters,
but they failed to assassinate him. He has
insisted on keeping his house and office in the
Sunni neighborhood that was controlled by
resistance fighters rather than moving to the
Green Zone where he would have had better
protection.
Sunni observers talked to IPS
about the arrests, and expressed other opinions.
"This man was one of the reasons that the Shi'ite
coalition controlled the situation in Iraq the way
they do now and he deserves what is happening to
him," Omar Mahmood, a lawyer who is close to the
Iraqi Association of Muslim Scholars led by Harith
al-Dhari, told IPS in Baghdad, "He drew Sunnis to
be cheap cover for the faked political operation
that helped American occupation have routes in
Sunni areas."
An Iraqi resistance fighter
spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "The
poor old guy sacrificed his faith and reputation
for a cheap chair in the Parliament and now they
are throwing him into the garbage can like used
tissue," the man told IPS in Baghdad, "We always
advised him that the Islamic Party and the Shi'ite
coalition would definitely get rid of him as soon
as he is no more needed, but he listened to his
pocket more than listening to the voice of
reason."
"My father is detained in our
house and my brother Makki is being tortured so
that he gives any information that could lead to
convicting my father," one of al-Dulaimi's several
sons, speaking on condition of anonymity, told
IPS, "My father's life is threatened and so is my
brother's life and the other guards. These army
people hate us and they might do anything. We find
Maliki and the Americans responsible for anything
that might happen to our father."
Ali al-Fadhily, Inter Press
Service's correspondent in Baghdad, works in close
collaboration with Dahr Jamail, IPS's US-based
specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively
in the region.
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