Protesters demand fall of Iraqi govt

AFP/Baghdad

Thousands of people in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq called for the government’s fall yesterday amid a spike in violence that has accompanied a political stalemate two months before provincial polls.

The demonstrations, which have been ongoing for nearly two months, have steadfastly urged for the ouster of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki while decrying the alleged targeting of minority Sunnis by the Shia-led authorities.

The protests began after Friday prayers in Mosul, Samarra, Kirkuk, Baquba, Ramadi and Fallujah — all predominantly Sunni — as well as Sunni-majority areas of Baghdad under heavy security as the central government has voiced fears the rallies had been infiltrated by militants.

 “There is no meaning to freedom in a country where criminals are free,” read one banner in Samarra, while another warned central government officials, “Baghdad, we are coming”.

“The rulers must look at the conditions of the people who, in spite of their poverty and pain, continue to live,” said Sheikh Abu Ala al-Hassani, in a speech to protesters in Mosul. “Now, we have passed 50 days on strike, and we are still demanding ... that officials be held responsible.”

The demonstrations were initially sparked in December by the arrest of several guards of Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi, a leading Sunni, and the longest-running of them have blocked off a key trade route linking Baghdad to Jordan and Syria. But they have since expanded markedly, and the government has sought to curtail them by claiming to have released thousands of detainees and raising the salaries of Sunni militiamen fighting Al Qaeda extremists. It has also restricted movements in major cities on Fridays, when the largest of these protests are held.

Maliki, meanwhile, has been grappling with a political crisis that has pitted him against many of his government partners barely two months before provincial elections, Iraq’s first since March 2010 parliamentary polls.

Tensions in Iraq are ‘troubling’: US general

AFP/Washington DC

Sectarian tensions and political discord in Iraq signal a “troubling” trend in the country since US troops withdrew a year ago, a top American general warned last week. Iraq has remained stable but “fragile,” said General Lloyd Austin, who was the last US commander in Iraq before all his forces withdrew in December 2011.

Austin offered his assessment when pressed by Republican Senator John McCain, a hawk on the Iraq war who has heavily criticised President Barack Obama for pulling out American troops.

“So do you believe Iraq is headed in a positive or negative direction?” McCain asked the general.

“Sir, I think, again, some of the things that we’re seeing in Iraq are very troubling, with the Arab current tensions, with the Sunni protests,” he said. McCain then asked: “So whether we had troops there — a residual force there or not wouldn’t have mattered?”

Austin acknowledged that a US troop presence would have been helpful. “I think that, certainly, if we could have continued to advise and assist the Iraqis, I think certainly it would have continued to make them better.”

The Obama administration says it sought to negotiate a follow-on force but the Iraqi government refused to grant legal immunity to US forces deployed there. McCain and some other lawmakers, however, have argued that the White House did not make a concerted effort to clinch an agreement.

Austin said that while there was cause for concern, there were also some encouraging signs, citing oil production and the performance of Iraqi security forces, which he said had remained united despite political crisis.

“They’ve been challenged several times, in terms of security, but the security forces have really held, and they’re still loyal to the civilian leadership. They haven’t fractured,” the general said. “And so there are a couple of things in there that do indicate that if they begin to make the right decisions politically, that I think they have a chance at moving in the right direction.”

Baghdad frees French reporter

Iraq last week freed on bail a French reporter held for three weeks for allegedly taking unauthorised photographs of security installations in Baghdad. Nadir Dendoune was in good health and was set to leave for Paris, a diplomat said, in a case that sparked uproar in France with press freedoms groups and the French government calling for the journalist’s release.

But although Dendoune, who also holds Australian and Algerian passports, is likely to depart for France, the fate of two Iraqi associates who were released on bail with him is unclear. “We released him, but still have many doubts about him,” a senior Iraqi security official said on condition of anonymity, while Muayad al-Lami, the head of the journalists’ union, said Dendoune was released and met by French ambassador Denys Gauer.