Mistrust of Sunni militias threatens Iraq stability

August 21, 2009

Aubrey Belford

Agence France Presse

BAGHDAD: At a desolate lot filled with car wrecks in the Dora neighborhood of south Baghdad, members of one of the Sunni militias recruited to fight Al-Qaeda proudly show how they got rid of the jihadists. Their commander, who gave his name only as Mohammad, points into the scrub where he said the militants stored their weapons, set up an Islamic court and buried dozens of victims. All gone – for the time being – thanks to his men.

Mohammad’s fighters are part of a grassroots movement of mostly Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents backed and funded by the US since 2006 that has been widely credited with reining in Al-Qaeda and its allies.

But with the program now in the hands of the Iraqi government, there are concerns that late wages and delays in finding jobs for nearly 100,000 armed Sunnis – and lingering sectarian mistrust – could send some militiamen back to the insurgency and help fuel fresh instability.

For the fighters in Dora, known as Sahwa, or Awakening, Council members, there is a sense that good deeds are going unrewarded by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“We started the Sahwa because of the cruelty and oppression of insurgents against the people here,” said Mohammad, a thickset middle-aged man with a vintage chrome pistol at his hip.

“We saw how these gangs were slaughtering and beheading 12- and 15-year-olds in the streets, stealing and looting,” said the commander of some 60 fighters, who is a former member of the Baath Party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

But since the Iraqi government took control of paying him and his men in April, he said wages have been cut and paid late. Twenty of his men have quit already.

His fighters have also seen few of the 16,000 jobs that have been created in the security forces and civil service specifically for the Sahwa, while he and his top assistants are the subject of arrest warrants that, although currently suspended, hang as a looming threat.

“If we’re gone, I’m 100 percent sure Al-Qaeda will return … There are sleeper cells. If we leave our positions, the area will be clear for them and they’ll come back in a minute.”

The government has promised to incorporate 20 percent of the Sahwa into the police and military, and find civil service jobs for many of the rest, but the process is fraught with risks.

The US military has also expressed concern over the integration process.

A Pentagon report in July argued: “The slow pace of integration has the potential to undermine Sunni confidence in the GoI [Government of Iraq], and, if not corrected, could undermine security progress.”

In Dora, where brown-uniformed Sahwa fighters continue to man the checkpoints, one militiaman said he feels little trust in the government. “We should get medals,” he said, requesting anonymity. “Instead, we are wanted men.”

Source: Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/Aug/21/Mistrust-of-Sunni-militias-threatens-Iraq-stability.ashx.