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Militia won't leave Najaf shrine until 2005
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-08 09:38 Shia militiamen loyal to leader Muqtada al-Sadr
have vowed not to withdraw from the most sacred shrine in the holy city of Najaf
until a democratic Iraqi government takes power in January 2005.
"If America promises to handover sovereignty and Iraqis start to get what
they need, the Mahdi Army will recognise the legitimate government," main
al-Sadr spokesman Shaikh Ahmad Shaibani told AFP on Monday.
"The Mahdi Army will withdraw from the whole field if the Americans keep
their promises and allow a democratic government. If we get real promises and
real agreements, the issue can be addressed," he added.
On Sunday, the police chief of Najaf, 160kms south of Baghdad, said that a
three-day ultimatum for the militiamen to abandon their stronghold next to the
Imam Ali mausoleum would expire at midnight (20:00 GMT) on Monday.
The police chief also made clear the Mahdi Army would have to evacuate the
shrine and threatened to "slaughter" any militiamen if Shia House, the umbrella
group of religious, political and tribal leaders, failed to persuade the
fighters to disperse.
Militias to disband
Meanwhile, nine Iraqi militias have agreed to disband under a deal announced
on Monday by prime minister Iyad Allawi but which does not include the Shia and
Sunni groups responsible for the bulk of the latest resistance attacks.
"I am happy to announce today the successful completion of negotiations on
the nationwide transition and reintegration of militias and other armed forces
previously outside of state control," Allawi said in a statement.
The agreement was reached with nine political parties, most of them
participants in the new Iraqi government and affects an estimated 100,000
militiamen.
Risk minimised
If successful, the deal will go a long way to minimising the risk of civil
war in Iraq's brittle mosaic of Sunni and Shia Arabs and Kurds.
Officials of the US-led occupation made clear the agreement, referred to as
CPA order 91, leaves al-Sadr's militia and other movements fighting the
Americans effectively outside the law.
Al-Sadr, whose followers have battled the occupation forces for the past two
months, faces a three-year ban from political office if he ever scraps his Mahdi
Army militia.
Al-Sadr aides dismissed the new order, insisting that the Mahdi Army was a
popular movement rather than a militia.
"This agreement does not concern us because we are not a
militia. We are a popular and radical movement and we are not looking for
political posts," said aide Husam al-Husayni.
The order makes a distinction for the nine parties which signed up to the
agreement, calling them resistance group against former president Saddam
Hussein.
Groups listed
Allawi listed the groups: Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP); Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK); the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party; the Shia Supreme
Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) and its Badr Brigade
militia; the prime minister's own Iraqi National Accord (INA); Ahmad Chalabi's
Iraqi National Congress (INC); the Shia-based Iraqi Hizb Allah; the Iraqi
Communist Party, and the Shia Dawa party.
A commander of the former Badr Brigade, general Shahir Faisal al-Shahir,
was shot and killed on Monday at a crossroads in the Iraqi capital, a SAIRI
spokesman in Tehran said.
An occupation official told reporters that Dawa, the INC and INA claim they
have already dissolved their militias other than small security forces deployed
to protect their leaders.
Those bodyguard teams are to be disbanded and turned into
private security firms that could be hired to guard political
parties or reconstruction projects, the official said.
Penalties
The law warns of penalties for any political party whose militia takes up
arms again. The sanctions are to be announced in legislation later this month.
The deal, in the works since February, aims to have 90% of the militias
decommissioned by January 2005 and the remainder phased out by next spring,
Allawi said.
But implementation hinges on the formation of an Iraqi government oversight
committee to ensure that the groups, including Iraq's main Shia and Kurdish
parties, truly disband and hand in all arms.
Allawi said about 40% of the decommissioned forces would become ordinary
civilians and another 60% would join "the Iraqi armed forces, the Iraqi police
service, or the internal security services of the Kurdish regional government".
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