By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
New York Times
23 May 2005
One day after a large group of anti-American Sunni leaders pledged to enter the political process, a rebel Shiite cleric who led uprisings against the American military suggested Sunday that he would forgo military efforts and work to ease rising sectarian tensions throughout Iraq.
The cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, led bloody revolts against American forces last year and was accused of murdering a rival Shiite cleric the year before. Many American officials view him as untrustworthy and continue to fear that he has been lying low so he can bring his militia back in force.
In an interview Sunday night with the Arabiya satellite news channel, Mr. Sadr declared that he now wanted to solve problems "politically, socially and peacefully."
Referring to the current wave of sectarian violence that Mr. Sadr said he wants to help defuse, he said, "Each period of time has its own necessities, and now I see that we face a political and cultural war." He also said: "We cannot face political war in a military action. The military war is to be faced with a military war, but the political war is to be faced with itself."
Mr. Sadr, believed to be in his early 30's, has a history of making promises to renounce violence only to break them. He was driven underground in August after the American military decimated his militia during a siege of the Imam Ali Shrine in the southern city of Najaf that left hundreds of Iraqis dead and much of the city's old district destroyed.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, ordered him to stop making trouble before elections in which the Shiites, who are a majority of the population, were assured of winning control of the government after decades of oppression under the Sunni minority led by the government of Saddam Hussein.
In recent weeks, Mr. Sadr has re-emerged, backing large anti-American demonstrations in Baghdad, Najaf, Kut and Nasiriya.
If there is any sincerity in his new overture, he is sending mixed signals. The recent demonstrations included the burning of American and Israeli flags, fiery condemnations of the American military, and a battle between Sadr followers and government guards in Nasiriya.
Mr. Sadr's intentions are a crucial element in the way American military officials deal with the increasingly seething sectarian tensions in Iraq. The Sadr militia, known as the Mahdi Army, remains a force that could disrupt heavily Shiite southern Iraq as well as the huge Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad that is Mr. Sadr's power base.
The slum, home to two million mostly poor Shiites, is named after Mr. Sadr's father, a revered cleric believed killed by agents of Mr. Hussein. To many American officials, the younger Mr. Sadr is an untrustworthy thug who trades off the name of his father and manipulated thousands of poor Shiite men into a hopeless fight against American forces last year merely to glorify himself.
Yet if he is finally prepared to turn fully toward politics, it would be the latest sign that some of the staunchest opponents of the new Shiite-dominated government are now feeling forced to engage in the political process while they still have time to gain some power.
On Saturday, a coalition of anti-American Sunni Arab groups reversed themselves and formed a new political alliance in an acknowledgement that it was a mistake for Sunnis to boycott the January elections. Aides to prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Sunday called on the new Sunni leaders to renounce violence by Sunni Arabs who are believed to make up most of the insurgency.
Mr. Sadr's televised interview came against a backdrop of more insurgent violence. In the capital, the American military said late Sunday that it had begun an offensive along with seven battalions of Iraqi troops to sweep through the Abu Ghraib district west of Baghdad, an area the military has described as an insurgent haven. A "substantial number" of suspects were detained, a military statement said, providing no details.
Al Qaeda's terrorist organization in Iraq said Sunday night in a statement over the Internet that it had executed an American, and it displayed an Illinois driver's license and other documents from the man.
The documents appeared to be authentic, but there was no way of knowing whether the claim was true. A military spokeswoman said all American troops had been accounted for, and a State Department spokeswoman said she had no information about the matter.
At least two American soldiers died Sunday, one by a car bomb near Tikrit about 10 a.m. and the other from injuries suffered during a vehicle accident at about 2:30 p.m. near Kirkuk, the military said.
Gunmen in Baghdad killed a senior official of the Iraqi Trade Ministry, identified as Ali Mowsa, an Interior Ministry official said. A Finance Ministry convoy in Tikrit was also attacked by gunmen, who killed three ministry employees and wounded two others, apparently in a robbery, the official said.
Three bodies, handcuffed and shot in the head execution style, were found near the restive town of Latifiya south of Baghdad, the local police said.
American officials working on $150 million of reconstruction projects in Sadr City have said in recent weeks that they do not have a good assessment of Mr. Sadr's intentions but are watching him closely. In particular, there has been unease about whether Sadr militiamen who took part in a weapons buyback last fall, which was meant to disarm the Mahdi Army, have used the money to buy better weapons.
In Sadr City, "there have been six months of relative quiet, Bill Taylor, the head of the American reconstruction effort, said Saturday. "Moktada al-Sadr has calmed down so far."
Mr. Sadr is struggling with how to frame himself and his movement now that Shiites are running the country. He controls one of the largest blocs of lawmakers in the 275-member National Assembly, though he said he had no intention of getting involved personally in writing the constitution, the major task facing the assembly.
In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 30 election, he struck some seemingly opportune alliances, notably with Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite politician who once was a favorite of the Bush administration. Mr. Chalabi is now a deputy prime minister, and three members of Mr. Sadr's National Assembly bloc have been appointed as cabinet ministers.
On perhaps the most contentious question facing political leaders here - how long the American military should stay - Mr. Sadr is at odds with other Shiite leaders.
With his public re-emergence, he has again called for the troops to leave. But the Shiites in power, including Dr. Jaafari and other Islamists, say the troops should stay until Iraq's security forces can take over. Dr. Jaafari's spokesman, Laith Kubba, said Sunday that Iraq was certain to ask American forces to stay past June 22 because Iraqi troops "are not ready yet."
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Citation: Richard A. Oppel Jr, "Rebel Shiite Cleric Hints He'll Shift to Politics, Not War," New York Times, 23 May 2005.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/international/middleeast/23iraq.html?ei=5094&en=45ab6c68db05a9b8&hp=&ex=1116820800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1116874806-agihdbgqu9jhqQUC0cc+iQ
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