"Al-Maliki is a dictator who must be removed by all
means," 35-year-old Abdul-Riza Hussein, a Mahdi Army member from Sadr City
in Baghdad, told IPS. "He is a worse dictator than Saddam; he has killed
in less than two years more than Saddam killed in 10 years."
Following the failed attempt by the U.S.-backed al-Maliki to
crack down on the Mahdi Army militia of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the
situation in Iraq has become much worse. Iraq appears to be splintering more
widely under this rule than under Saddam's.
Fierce fighting has broken out between Sadr's Mahdi Army and
Maliki's army and police forces in Baghdad, which comprise mostly the Badr
Organization militia, the armed wing of a political group, the Supreme Islamic
Iraqi Council (SIIC).
According to statistics compiled by the U.S. military in
Baghdad, there has been a sharp increase in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi
security forces, from 239 in February to 631 in March. Most of these attacks
are believed to have been carried out by the Mahdi Army.
The Mahdi Army is known to have substantial control of the
streets of Baghdad, Basra, and many other predominantly Shia areas in southern
Iraq.
But there is also considerable Shia support for Maliki's
effort to disarm the Mahdi Army. "Those who shout loud against Maliki and
his legally elected government are all thieves and murderers and must be
executed," says Aziz Mussawi, a resident of Hilla, 60 mi. south of
Baghdad, who fled for Baghdad when the clashes started there last month.
"These militias will destroy Iraq if left unleashed."
Many Iraqis feel caught in a crossfire in what they see as a
battle for power between the Shia factions. "Over a thousand Iraqis got
killed and more than that number wounded just for a game of chess between
warlords," Mohammad Alwan, a lawyer in Baghdad, told IPS. "All of
them call for dissolving militias while they keep militias of their own. Most
of those in power in the government are militia leaders."
Sadr and his followers are calling for unity, in an attempt
to bring as many Iraqis as they can, Sunni and Shia, to their side. The rival
Fadhila Party, powerful in many Shia provinces and in cities like Basra where
it holds the governorship, has also called for unity.
Mourners chant slogans during a funeral for Riyadh al-Nuri,a
senior aide to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in Najaf, 160 km (100
miles) south of Baghdad April 11, 2008. Iraqi police imposed a curfew to
prevent an outbreak of violence in the southern Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on
Friday, after al-Nuri was shot dead. REUTERS
It is widely believed in Iraq that parties who call for
unity are using the issue to get public support against federalism, seen to be
supported by the U.S. and Iranian backed parties such as the SIIC and Maliki's
Da'wa Party. Many in Iraq see federalism as the breakup of the country.
After five years of occupation and suffering, with no end in
sight, many Iraqis have become sceptical of all political and religious
leaders.
"Sadr is another face of the Iranian project, despite
their pretending to be a national movement," Jassam Hady, a colonel of the
former Iraqi army in Baghdad, told IPS. "All those in the Iraqi government
in the so-called Green Zone have militias that have killed Iraqis under one
flag or another." Hady, like many Iraqis, believes that the current spasm
of violence will worsen as the two main Shia groups, the Sadr Movement and
Maliki's affiliations, continue to vie for power ahead of the provincial
elections slated for October.
Division has broken out also within tribes; many have now
come to back Sadr not because they like him, but because they hate the Badr
militia of Hakeem's SIIC and Maliki's Da'wa Party.
"Our problem in the southern parts of Iraq and other
Shia dominated areas is that all options are bad," the chief of a major
tribe in Basra who fled for Baghdad told IPS on the condition of anonymity.
"Iranian controlled militias killed so many chiefs of
tribes because they refused to support these division projects concealed under
the flag of federalism."
Several tribes in the south have formed unions to fight the
separation project, but some sheiks have formed counter unions to support the
Badr and Da'wa agenda.
Most people seem to oppose any federalism that would
separate Shia from Sunni Muslims.
"We will be weak without our Sunni brothers," says
Shamil Mahmood of Sadr City, the eastern district of 2 million in Baghdad.
"The whole of the south will be swallowed by Iran, that will humiliate us
and treat us like animals."
