By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
New York Times
08 May 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 8 - One of four Sunni Arabs picked over the weekend to join Iraq's new Shiite-controlled cabinet abruptly rejected the job today, saying he first learned of his selection from a television news report on Saturday night and adding that he felt his selection would further a quota system for Sunnis that would only make sectarian problems worse.
The political setback came as the United States military announced that insurgents had killed eight American servicemen over the weekend. In one ambush, insurgents took over a hospital in Haditha, a haven west of Baghdad for the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and killed three marines and one sailor. The American military also said it had captured the mastermind behind both the large-scale attack on Abu Ghraib prison one month ago and the wave of car bombs that killed 40 Iraqis in greater Baghdad on April 29.
In the capital, the National Assembly approved six new cabinet ministers today, including the unwilling candidate, Hashim al-Shibli, who had been named human rights minister. But on a day when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had hoped to finally complete his cabinet and put to rest contentious political battles that delayed his government, the rejection dealt him another embarrassment.
One day earlier, Dr. Jaafari had declared at an afternoon news conference that all six names had already been approved by President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents. But Mr. Shibli, in an interview, said he did not formally learn that he had been picked until just before the confirmation vote today, leading him to believe his selection was more symbolism than substance.
"I heard about it watching TV," Mr. Shibli said. "No one talked to me or asked me about it before. This morning they called me and tried to congratulate me in my 'new job,' but I said no. I refused this because this is sectarianism, and I don't believe in sectarianism. I believe in democracy."
Insurgents have killed more than 300 people since Dr. Jaafari announced the majority of his cabinet 11 days ago, including more than 200 Iraqi police and troops. American and Iraqi officials say the attacks have been coordinated to undermine confidence in Dr. Jaafari's new administration as it tackles a revolt fought largely by Sunni Arabs loyal to Saddam Hussein, who favored Sunnis and brutally oppressed the Shiites and Kurds who dominate the new government. Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election, but some Sunni political leaders say they are angered by their limited role in Dr. Jaafari's new government.
The most important Sunni cabinet post went to a former officer in Mr. Hussein's feared General Security Directorate who fled Iraq and faced a death sentence if he returned. The man, Sadoon al-Dulaimi, left Iraq in the 1980's, became a sociologist in the United Kingdom and came back after Mr. Hussein was ousted two years ago.
Mr. Dulaimi is a native of Ramadi, a heartland city of the insurgency. He is a secular Sunni born into one of the most influential tribes in Iraq. After Mr. Hussein's fall, Mr. Dulaimi ran a think tank, the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, which published polls last year showing that Iraqis were increasingly upset with the American occupation. Mr. Dulaimi himself was highly critical of the American-led occupation administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority.
The oil ministry went to Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who served as oil minister under the C.P.A. and is the son of a prominent Shiite cleric. Mr. Uloum pledged to end gasoline shortages and boost oil exports to 1.75 million barrels per day, the level one year ago. Current exports are about 1.5 million barrels per day. With poor security ruling out most foreign investment, Iraq will rely on exports to finance the government. But so far production has lagged far behind expectations despite extensive United States-financed improvements.
In addition to the attack on Saturday in Haditha, another American marine was killed the same day by a homemade bomb in Karma. Today, two soldiers were killed by a homemade bomb near Khaldiya, west of Falluja. One soldier was also killed and another wounded today near Samarra, 70 miles north of the capital, when a homemade bomb struck their convoy, the military said.
Gunmen in Baghdad killed a senior Transportation Ministry official, Yasser Khudair Almaaini. He was shot to death along with his driver in the hostile Dora neighborhood at about 7 a.m. today, an Interior Ministry official said.
That attack followed a dual suicide car bomb strike on an American private security convoy on Saturday morning that killed two American security contractors and at least 22 Iraqis and wounded dozens, including girls from a nearby school. CTU Consulting of North Carolina identified the two American security contractors who were killed as Brandon Thomas and Todd Venette. Five other CTU employees were also wounded, and four have been treated and released, the company said.
The American military said soldiers had captured Amar Adnan Muhammad Hamzah al-Zubaydi, or Abu al-Abbas, a terrorist affiliated with Mr. Zarqawi and the "key planner" behind the April 2 attack on Abu Ghraib and the April 29 bombings. Officials said he was captured Thursday and had confessed to planning the assassination of a high-ranking Iraqi official.
"In addition to his involvement in assassination plans, Abu al-Abbas provided explosive devices, assisted in the preparation of vehicles, selected targets, coordinated for suicide bombers, facilitated foreign fighters into Iraq and orchestrated the execution of several bombing operations in recent weeks," the military said.
Mr. Abbas stole 300 to 400 rockets and more than 720 cases of plastic explosives from a ammunition dump in Yusufiya in early 2003 and buried the weapons at or near his farm, the military said. He provided some explosives to Umar al-Kurdi, described by the military as the bomber who orchestrated three out of every four car bombs in Baghdad before his capture on Jan. 15.
Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedy contributed reporting from Baghdad, Iraq, for this article.
---------------------------
Citation: Richard A. Oppel Jr., "Iraq Tries to Complete Cabinet, but a Sunni Rejects Nomination," New York Times, 8 May 2005.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/international/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html?ei=5070&en=1ba7b9db68d3c5d4&ex=1116216000&pagewanted=print
---------------------------