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Sectarianism Splits Security in Diyala
by Ahmed Ali Militia from the Shia organisation Badr have taken over the police force in Diyala province north of Baghdad, residents say. The government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is believed to have backed such infiltration, and this has reportedly led to clashes with U.S. military leaders.
The Daily Telegraph in London has reported that Maliki and General David Petraeus, U.S. commander of the multi-national force in Iraq, have clashed over moves by the U.S. general to arm some Sunni groups. Sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims has grown amidst Iraqi government policies seen as supportive of Shias. Maliki is from the Dawa Party backed by Shia Iran.
BAQUBA, Aug 7 (IPS) - In Baquba, 50km northeast of the capital, and capital of Diyala,
residents say the Shia Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the
politically dominant Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), has been
dominant in the province since the early months of the occupation.
The
Badr Organisation managed to fill leadership positions in the city and
province, while Sunni Iraqis remained largely unrepresented. In
this set-up, many sectarian killings have been carried out by the Badr
Organisation, often under cover of the local police, residents told IPS.
The
SIIC and the Dawa Party of the Prime Minister are politically
affiliated. Maliki is secretary-general of the Dawa Party, and spent
time in exile in Iran after leading insurgent groups against former
president Saddam Hussein.
Maliki came to be Prime Minister after
political pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
former British foreign secretary Jack Straw forced former Iraqi prime
minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, also from the al-Dawa Party, to resign.
Residents
of this violence-plagued city told IPS that it is common for Iraqi
police and army forces, most of whom are militiamen with the Badr
Organisation, to raid homes of Sunnis during the night, and take away
men who are later found dead in the street.
As a result, groups
have begun to set up blocks to prevent police patrols from entering
their districts at night. There have been several clashes in these
districts between residents and people wearing police uniforms
attempting to enter.
"All the attacks on the Iraqi police and
army have been a reaction to the sectarian orientation of the police
and Iraqi army," Ali Juma'a, a retired Iraqi army officer told IPS.
"They (Badr Organisation affiliated Iraqi police) targeted the officers
of the previous Iraq army, military pilots who took part in the
Iraq-Iran war, members of the Ba'ath party (of Saddam Hussein) and
others."
"Police vehicles are often accompanied by civilian
cars," a resident said, declining to give his name. "These cars are
driven by civilians who are new to the city, we never saw them here in
the past." Many residents say they have seen such cars at the police
headquarters in Diyala.
The IPS correspondent saw one such car
near an Iraqi Army checkpoint; the car like others that residents
describe, was a 1993-94 Toyota super saloon. In the back seat were two
blindfolded civilians with their hands tied behind their backs.
Day
after day, trust in the Iraqi government and its security forces
diminishes. This is in the face of increasing popular support for the
Iraqi resistance. Local support for the resistance, particularly in
Sunni areas, has risen as resistance groups began to protect residents
from Badr Organisation death squads.
The death squads are
notorious for using checkpoints to look at identity cards of drivers,
who are then disappeared if they are of the 'wrong' sect.
The chief commander of police is from Khirnabat village whose residents are all Shia. The commander was nominated by the SIIC.
"Coalition
forces received complaints about the checkpoint at Jamhoriya Bridge (in
the centre of Baquba, 100 metres from the police headquarters), and
later they found a prison in the villages Khirnabat and Huwaider (also
a Shia village) and freed all the Sunni prisoners," local resident Hadi
Hassan told IPS.
IPS spoke with a Sunni man named Ammar
al-Samaraee who had been arrested at the checkpoint and sent to
Huwaider village. His father is a well-known figure in the community
and managed to have Ammar released after paying 15,000 dollars in
ransom. Ammar suffered a broken shoulder and bruises up and down his
body.
A Sunni man held prisoner inside the central prison for
Diyala province spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "There were
more than 250 prisoners with me in the prison and all of them were
Sunni except one man named Hussein, who was Shia, and was charged with
killing his nephew."
Shia men who were imprisoned would often be freed by a Shia clerk at the prison, he said.
"The
entire Iraqi police department for Diyala province is run and
controlled by the SIIC and not by the government," the former prisoner
added. "And 95 percent of the staff are Shia."
Ahmed Ali, our
correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration
with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels
extensively in the region.
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(c)2007 Dahr Jamail.
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us military moves hieghten divide written by a guest,
August 08, 2007
maliki spent a good majority of his life in iran.he recieved all of his education in iran......it is really a no-brainer that he was an iranian agent,and it is also a no-brainer,the c.i.a. knew it.now the u.s. wants to arm the cat(sunni)to go after the rat,they)u.s.) created.
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