Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka
Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
~ined enormously important.' .
, In 1968, when. the Ba'àth Party came to
power, the tribalism that had been a characteristic
ofIraq since its inception intensified.
The Ba'ath Party itself was the purview
of one tribe, the Bu Nasir, the tribe of
Saddam. It was not uritill991 when Saddam,
in the service of survival after the
Gulf war, lifted tribalism to the top of the
,political order ..~ the same til;lle, repressive
politics and economichardship continued
to drive out the old urban elite and
much of the urban middle claSs that had
risen duripg the oil ~om of the 1970~s.,
.' In the last decade of his regime, Saddam
.remade Iraq into a country govemedby the
rural values of the tribes. Operating according,
to the values of the tribe, the system
sanctioned
venge.
the age-old principle of re- .
. ' ..
Saddam meted out revenge on those who
defied the system. .They ~t into the re-
.gime's tortUre chambers' and rrisons.
Tribes visited revenge on the reglme for
slights to their honor 'and for punishment
of their members by Saddam's security system.
The imperative of re~e was no different
in ~te 20th-century lraq than it had
been for the tribes living for generations on
, the land of Iraq. This is a fact that the Bush
administration, the. American occupation,
au~orities
realIze.
and the U.S. plilitary
, ",.
need to'
, In giving up on the attempted captUre of
the ,Hussein brothers as too risky, the
American administration of Iraq has ignored
the dictates of Iraqi culture. At the
same time, it alsoruns counter to the kind
of country we want Iraq to become - 9lle
built around the rule of law.
Under Saddam's reign, j~tice, to the extent
it existed, was consistentlY'pe~vertect .
. .
lt was erratic, violent and retributive, a tool
of Saddam and his Ba.ath Party. By not d0-
ing more tQallow Uday and Qpsay Hussein
to surrender, the United States lost an opportunity
to show Iraqis that those who
have committed the most heinous, of
crimes ,can still be brought to justice.
On trial in Baghdad, the Hussein broth-,
ers could have recounted the regime's
crimes. Certainly, the effort would have
been more' drawn-out than a firefiJdlt -
g~ Balkan criminals toThe HagÜe has .
ndt I:leeneasy - but the results would have
been iDore lasting. . ,
,AJi appearÛlce by the brothers would
not only have pinned them to their crimes
beyond a doubt, it would have also demon- ,
strated the effectiveness of a sound system
of justice.
)'he deaths ofUd~ and Q!lsay are being
proclaimed as a victory, but it is a temroraiy
victory. And the mann~ in which
they died is yet another long-term complication
for the American occupation of
Ira . q.
" ,
The writer is the author most recently of
"The Iœc1coning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam
Hussein. "
'-:
Clericsayshe'sforming
a religious army in Iraq
Group would challenge coalition forces
The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune'
Saturday-Sunday, July 26-27, 2003
Sadr has drawn backing among some
Iraq of detal1iing four to lIve Shiite cler- ' young Shiites, primarily from the pop-
, ics every week and of storming religious ula~ty of his la~ father -14~mmed
KUFA,lraq: Stepping up his challenge' schools belonging to the al-Hawza al- Sadlq al-Sadr. ~ calls for stricter adto
Iraq's U.S.-led occupiers, an influen- Ilmiyah, the Shiites' ancient seminary in herence to Shana also found resonance
tial Shiite Muslim cleric accused coali- An Naja! He said such actions and the among young, poorer Shiites.
tion forces ..Friday of cross~ a.ll. the establishment of what he called the U.S.- Inhi sermon, Sadr repeated the attack
"red lines" and vowèd that his relIgIous led Iritqi Army constituted crossing "red he issued last week on the Governing
army would drive U.S. troops out of the '" . . Council- the majority ofwhose memholy
city of An Naja! ' ,lin;s and were unacceptable. bers are Shiites, but are either secular
.Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr told SO,O~ • We have only one, demand, an~ ~t or members ofmoderate factions _ and
worshippers gathered at the malO,
mosque in the holy Shiite city of Kufa
ISfor the~ to .~thdraw from ~aq, saId
Sadr, ~~o ~ be!leved to b~ 30. TheY!ire
spoke of the "siege" of An Najafby U.S.
troops. "The siege is an act of terrorsouth
of Baghdad that aftèr his "Imam enshrimng ~eIr occura~on b~ creating ,ism," he said. "lt's a sie-.of all Shiites."
Army" pus]:les the Americans out of An ~he GovernlOg CouncIl, he saId, ~llud- Responding to what he called the co-
Najaf and other Iraqi cities, the men will ~ngto ~e ~-m~mber, U.S.-ba~ked lOter- alition's assertion that troops were acttake
charge of defending those cities; 1m adm!mstratloncrea~~ thIS m!l~th. iog on the behest of An Najaf's ,resi-
. Speaking after his Friday s~on, Offi~18ls of the CoalItion ProVlSlo~1 dents, he said: "Whoever accepts the
Sadr said tens of thousands had cOme Authonty, the. formal name of ~q s occupation is not a Muslim and the land
. forward to join the proposed army, but ~.S.-led O~CUplers,~y Sadr has a lim- of Najaf doesn't belong to its resident
' he insistedthat it would not be armed. Ited followlOg and hIS ~upp~rters ~o ~ot alone. It's the capital of all Muslims."
for now., represe~~ ~e cou~try s Sh~te maJonty. Relations between U.S. troops and
"To start with, we don't' have any They cntlclzed as Ir~esponslble prot~sts residents of An Najafhad been calm unarms"
said Sadr, the son of a senior held last .~~ by his followers outSIde tillast week, when Sadr asserted that
. cleri~ who was assassinated along with; 'the coalition s. ~dad ~eadqua~ American forces were encircling his
• two other sons in 1999. "Tens of thou- .and at a ~.S. mIlItary base ~~An Najaf home in an attempt to artest him.
'sands have volunteered and many of Sp~king on th~ condition .of an- But Lieutenant Colonel Christopher
them said they wanted arms. I said, 'No, onymlty, the offi~lals also saId .that Conlin, the commanding officer here,
I don't- want you to be armed now.' We the!e were complamts from An NaJaf's described it. as a misunderstanding.
shall only use peaceful means." reslden~s. that .Sadr fol!owers were Apache helicopters had circled over-
He said among the new army's tasks smugglI~ arms Into the CIty. . head and extra troops were on the
would be to stop what he called the so-