Az-Zaman today carried the headline: “3000 Ba'this on the assassination list of militias in Southern Iraq.” The paper said that “a state of panic” has visited the south of the country, after “the militias affiliated with religious parties” began “liquidating 3000 ex-Ba'this ... accused of killing participants in the 1991 revolt against the previous regime.”
The paper noted, with a tinge of irony, that the alleged assassinations are occurring (by militias belonging to the ruling shi'a parties) at the same time when the Iraqi parliament is debating the “justice and accountability law,” which aims at establishing a process to – legally – indict ex-Ba'this accused of committing crimes on behalf of the deposed regime.
The assassination of ex-Ba'this took several shapes in post-invasion Iraq. Many Iraqis may have carried revenge-killings against local party officials who had aggrieved them personally, many high-echelon Ba'thists (who did not flee the country) were also targeted for assassinations; but in the last years, the liquidation of Saddam’s supporters took a more systematic approach by Iraqi militias. Many reports agree that parties linked to the state used the records of the deposed regime to list, locate and systematically target those who worked for specific state organizations, namely the security services, the party establishment and the secret police.
Az-Zaman also revealed another approach used by the “vigilantes”: Arab nationals who lived in Iraq, mostly Palestinians, were met with extreme hostility by the militias who regarded them to be - collectively – Saddam supporters. As a result, the Palestinian community in Iraq was singled out for a fierce campaign of assassinations, deportations and collective punishment. The paper said that the assassinations against Palestinians are again on the rise in Baghdad, and that militias are now extracting “confessions” from victims, under torture, before their execution.
Az-Zaman alleged that such practices abound in the center and the south of the country, where militias, through the state apparatus, have an uncontested influence over these localities. Militia leaders, the paper claimed, were given high ranks in the Army and the Police, which allows them to carry out their agenda unhindered. Hundreds of assassinations were committed in Karbala, the paper added, without them being investigated by the police.
On a similar theme, al-Mada reported that the assassins of a Sistani representative in Najaf, Sheikh 'Abdallah Falk, were arrested by the police today. The killer, the paper claimed, was the guard of the victim’s house, and committed his crime for the purpose of robbing the Sheikh, who held high financial responsibilities in Sistani’s foundations.
Meanwhile, al-Quds al-'Arabi quoted an explosive statement by Muhammad al-Ya'qubi, a founder and inspirer of the Shi'a Fadhila party, in which the cleric harshly attacked the government and the Shi'a parties that support it. Al-Fadhila is a smaller party compared to its competitors on the Shi'a scene, such as the Sadrist Current and the SIIC, but Fadhila was able to attract a large section of educated Shi'as and establish a considerable base of support in Basra.
While Fadhila had ruptured its links with the government earlier this year, the latest statement by Ya'qubi went beyond criticizing the cabinet’s policies and dubbed the entire government as “illegitimate.” Al-Ya'qubi also questioned the Shi'a “credentials” of the government and attacked the “Shi'a turbans” that “legitimize” it.
In other news, Al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat said that a conference that was planned in Damascus, grouping organizations that oppose the current political process (including Ba'thists and resistance factions) was canceled today. The cancellation came at the request of the Syrian government, Reuters reported. While several Iraqi personalities and organizations had expressed their readiness to participate, several factions of the Iraqi Ba'th had protested the Syrian sponsorship, and expressed fears that the Syrian state may be planning to dominate the conference.
Despite the fall of the Saddam regime, old rivalries between the Syrian and Iraqi Ba'th parties remain entrenched, especially among the “old guard;” the Syrian government may have realized that sponsoring an Iraqi opposition conference will create new divisions, rather than unite, the current mosaic of opposition parties and factions.
