BY ROHAN PEARCE
With the destruction of the Baath Party regime, two significant political poles have emerged within Iraq — US-imposed administration headed by retired US general Jay Garner and the anti-US occupation Shiite clergy.
It is the attempt of Shiite clerics (though far from united in their efforts) to consolidate administrations in Iraq's cities independent of the US — which is behind White House accusations of "Iranian agents" interfering in the country.
Shiite mosques are providing centres for the organisation of a post-Baathist political force independent of Washington's control. The irony, which undermines US claims that its troops are "liberating" Iraq, is that the greatest challenge to the occupation comes from the Shiites, who make up 60% of the population and who were savagely oppressed by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, while many of those who were part of the former regime will most likely see only a change of master: from Hussein to Garner.
Further undermining the White House's claim that the US supports self-determination for the Iraqis, US war secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Associated Press' Thelma LeBrecht and Bob Burns that an Islamic "Iranian type government [in Iraq]... ain't going to happen". As a Baghdad resident told the British Independent, reported in an article filed on April 26, "I thought the Americans said they wanted a democracy in Iraq. If it is a democracy, why are they allowed to make the rules?"
Underlying the rejection of an Islamic state is not some principle of the US political elite of support for secular governments — among its allies in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia, in which Islam is the state religion.
On April 25, US ABC News reported that anonymous officials in the US government told the broadcaster that they are deeply worried about the Shiites, because "It will be a tragedy if radical, anti-American elements gain control in post-Saddam Iraq".
The question of how Washington deals with Iraqi Shiites will have ramifications for the whole of the Middle East, since most of Iraq's neighbours, with the exception of Jordan and Turkey, have sizeable Shiite populations. The May 2001 edition of the Ethnic Conflict Research Digest gives the percentage of Shiite population for Iran as 89%, Kuwait 40%, Saudi Arabia 15% and Syria 16%.
Washington has apparently attempted to take steps to alleviate the "Shiite problem". However, they seem to have been ineffective.
On April 10, the Saudi Arabia-based Arab News reported that the Shiite scholar Majid al Khoei had been hacked to death by residents in Najaf, the Shiites' holiest city in Iraq. His assailants accused him of being a US stooge.
Khoei had fled Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and his return to the country had been facilitated by Washington in an attempt to gain a stronger foothold among Shiites. He had been supplied with US$3 million by the US government to enable him to "extend his influence" in Najaf.
When he was killed, Khoei was with Haider al Kadr, long connected to Hussein's ministry of religion. An April 11 Associated Press article reported that the two were in Najaf to meet at the Ali mosque, one of the Shiites' most holy sites, in a US-sponsored attempt to "forge reconciliation".
The presence of Kadr had infuriated the crowd. "Kadr was an animal", a witness of the attack told AP. "Everybody was afraid of him. The people were shouting that they hated him, that he should not be there."
In the town of Kut, 160km south of Baghdad, Saeed Abbas, a tribal leader and retired school teacher took over the administration of the town, setting himself up in the former governor's office. According to the April 25 British Guardian, Abbas was "issuing decrees, delivering food aid, and taking money from the bank to pay local employees" — all independently of the US occupation forces.
The April 25 Toronto Star reported that US Marines in the town have twice tried to evict Abbas. Both times, his supporters successfully repelled them. But Abbas told the Guardian that, even if the US troops were successful, "I can manage these people from the mosque".
Abbas is backed by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, believed to be the largest Iraqi Shiite political organisation. The SCIRI, based in Iran, is headed by Ayatollah Mohamad Baqir al Hakim and includes the 12,000-strong Badr Corps, made up, according to the SCIRI, of "Iraqi refugees in Iran, Iraqi migrants and Iraqi military officers as well as soldiers from the Iraqi army who defected during the Iran-Iraq war".
Hakim for a time maintained an ambiguous stance toward the US and its plan to invade Iraq. In a December 26, 2001, interview with Newsweek, he replied to a question about US-led "regime change" by saying: "The main factor here is that it is the people of Iraq who should play the main role."
However, he added: "We expect the world community to pressure Saddam Hussein politically and militarily to comply with UN resolutions the same way they did in Kosovo. Putting political pressure first, and when it proves unsuccessful, exert military pressure."
Later on, when asked, "What if the international community doesn't want to get involved and the Americans do it on their own? Would you support that?", he replied: "That depends on the political situation and timing of the attack. We cannot prejudge future events before they happen."
Hakim told the March 26 edition of SBS television's Dateline: "We expect the Iraqi people as a whole to resist in this situation or else it will be considered a religious war. Seen as such, it would have serious ramifications."
He also told the program he was in favour of a government decided by the people of Iraq: "At this particular moment in time, with tyranny and despotism dominant in Iraq, I saw it as my religious, ethical and political duty to undertake the comprehensive task of changing this dictatorial, sectarian and racist regime now ruling Iraq into a regime based on the opinions of the Iraqi people."
During the invasion, the SCIRI called for Shiites to remain neutral in the fighting. "They will try to remain on the sidelines to suffer the least possible damage, until they are certain that the Iraqi regime's repressive machine has been annihilated", a spokesperson for the group told Arab News on April 5. "When this point is reached, they will start organising themselves."
The SCIRI has begun to organise against the occupation and has displayed hostility to US attempts to impose a pro-Washington puppet regime, boycotting the US-sponsored "opposition" meeting in Nasiriya on April 15.
From Green Left Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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