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| Top right: Placard raised in Anbar demands release of Sunnite women detainees |
Tens of thousands of Sunnite
protesters in Iraq’s west today kept the main highway to Syria and Jordan blocked
for a ninth straight day.
The mass protests in Iraq’s
Anbar and several other Sunni-dominated provinces accuse
Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of mounting an
organized campaign against their sect and of being an ally of
the Syrian regime and a surrogate of Iran.
The
protests erupted December 21 in Anbar province after troops loyal to Maliki detained
bodyguards and aides of his finance minister, a Sunni. The
move evoked attempts to arrest Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi in
December 2011. Hashemi was later sentenced to death in absentia.
An
attempt by Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of the
most senior Sunnite officials in the government, to defuse the crisis
ended in chaos, with his bodyguards opening fire and wounding two
demonstrators in Ramadi.
The
protesters want an end to what they perceive as Maliki’s targeted
marginalization of Sunnites and the release of Sunnite females
rounded up after the detention of their male relatives under terrorism charges.
When women in Iraq are arrested, they routinely go
through three gruesome phases, starting with humiliation, followed by torture,
and often ending with rape (see report).
“Clouds of divorce” is the inspired title of a
leader comment today focusing on Iraq by Ghassan Charbel, editor-in-chief of
pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.
He recounts how he called on a senior Iraqi
official for a nameless briefing on the situation in the country.
Since I want to talk candidly, the official said, the
situation is very bad and the days ahead are far from looking rosy.
He then pulled out from his pocket a note, which he
started reading.
He said the number of Sunnite staff at the Interior
Ministry that was so-and-so has dropped to this much; same thing at the Defense
Ministry -- the Agriculture Ministry wasn’t spared either.
The Sunnite positions in the Armed Forces are also dwindling
non-stop, the official added.
“A few days ago, a senior officer was assassinated,
most probably by a man in uniform,” he blurted out.
When I asked about his expectations, he said: “The
Iraqi Sunnite street is at boiling point. No Iraqi Sunnite accepts being a
second-class citizen. Where would the Iraqi Sunnites’ wrath lead? Beyond what
you imagine! I don’t fancy that, but I am afraid that’s where we’re heading.”
After the meeting, I felt distraught. It’s unusual
for a state official to talk so plainly to a journalist he was meeting for the
first time.
When protests broke out in Anbar a few days back, I
called another Iraqi politician, asking how serious the unrest was.
He told me in no uncertain terms: “It is more serious
than many people imagine. If Maliki persists in his exclusion, marginalization
and monopolization policies, I don’t rule out Iraq heading to partition.
“His (Maliki’s) policies are destroying Iraq’s political
fabric. He has taken relations with the Kurds to the verge of war and reneged
on his promises to them.
“He is now driving Arab Sunnites to challenge his
rule in the open.
“Add to that another split among Iraqis over Iran and
happenings in Syria.
“It is in your interest as a journalist to visit Iraq
because it is at a critical juncture. Sadly, we can’t now hide behind our
finger and cover up our divisions by blaming the (U.S.) occupation and the
remnants of Saddam Hussein.”
While the clouds of divorce were gathering in the
skies of Anbar, UN reports and correspondents’ dispatches spoke of the Syria
conflict turning overtly sectarian. This probably explains Lakhdar Brahimi’s
remark on his return from Moscow predicting “hell” and a breakdown of Syria
into a “new Somalia” in the absence of a negotiated settlement.
Taken in the context of Brahimi’s earlier call for
“real and deep change” in Syria, chances are that “hell” is more likely in 2013,
particularly that the Syria conflict is now on the Sunnite-Shiite fault line
stretching from Baghdad to Beirut, passing by Damascus.
The winds of divorce whipping Syria are lashing Lebanon
as well. Sectarian affinities have brought down the sanctity of international
borders and built up the appetite for risk-taking. The Lebanese are divided over
the Syrian Revolution, the Syrian regime’s future and the flow of refugees
fleeing the Syrian inferno.
The “hell” Brahimi talked about won’t necessarily
respect international borders that are porous anyway.
Gambles taken by allies of the Syrian regime, and by
some of its opponents, are also inviting strife.
Together, the clouds gathering in Iraq’s Anbar and
the winds of divorce lashing Syria and Lebanon show the Iraq-Syria-Lebanon
triangle gushing forth to “hell.”
