- Partiti curdi, sunniti e di Allawi puntano a impedire la
nomina di al Jafaari a primo ministro: - cancellato primo incontro interpartitico sulla formazione
del governo dopo che i sunniti si erano ritirati per protesta contro attacchi
ai sunniti. - La scelta di al Jafaari nella coalizione sciita sarebbe
dipesa da M. al Sadr, - le cui milizie sarebbero state le protagoniste degli
attacchi a moschee sunnite dopo l’esplosione della moschea di Samarra: - uccisi 45 religiosi sunniti, bruciate 37 moschee, altre 87
attaccate con armi e 6 restano occupate da sciiti. - A-S al Kubaisi invita gli sciiti a tornare nelle zone
sunnite da dove sono fuggiti. - John Pace, ex resp. ONU per diritti
umani : abusi come ai tempi di Saddam, - con assassini extragiudiziari e torture; lavoratori obitori
minacciati perché non indaghino su cause di morte. Con Saddam bastava
rinunciare a diritti civili per aver salva la vita, nel caos attuale non basta. - Negli attentati di mercoledì altri 47 morti.
Associated Press
March 2, 2006 9:40 a.m.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
canceled a meeting Thursday with Iraq’s top political leaders after they agreed
to mount a campaign to deny him another term in a bid to jump-start stalled
talks on a new national unity government.
Separately, a top Sunni religious official
said Thursday that 45 Sunni preachers and mosque employees have been killed
since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra ignited a wave of
reprisal attacks.
Mr. Jaafari called the meeting to discuss
ways to resolve the political standoff and contain a surge of sectarian
violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. His office gave no
reason for canceling it.
"The cancellation of this meeting is a
regrettable thing because such meetings are essential under the current
situation," said Mahmoud Othman, from the Kurdish bloc in Parliament.
On Wednesday, leaders of three parties,
including Sunnis, Kurds and the secularists of ex-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi,
agreed to ask the main Shiite bloc to withdraw Mr. Jaafari’s nomination for
prime minister and put forward another candidate. Officials of all three groups
confirmed the plan but spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the subject.
Under the constitution, the nominee of the
biggest bloc in parliament gets the first chance to form a government. The
Shiites won 130 of the 275 seats — giving them the largest bloc, but not
enough to govern without partners.
Mr. Jaafari won the nomination by a single
vote in a Feb. 12 ballot among Shiite lawmakers. He defeated Vice President
Adil Abdul-Mahdi in large part due to the support of radical,
anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Mr. Sadr’s militiamen were believed to be
behind many of the attacks against Sunni mosques last week, and the prospect of
a prime minister in debt to the young radical has alarmed mainstream
politicians, including some in the Shiite alliance.
They fear a strong role for Mr. Sadr could sharpen tensions behind a surge of
sectarian killing last week and complicate U.S. plans to begin drawing down
their forces this year.
The talks on a new government broke down last
week when the Sunni parties pulled out of the negotiations to protest
attacks on Sunni mosques in reprisal for the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred
Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the influential
Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the
Shiite-led government and its security forces for failing to prevent the
reprisal attacks.
Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi appealed for calm and urged hundreds of displaced Shiites to
return to the mostly Sunni neighborhoods they fled last week.
John Pace, the
former United Nations human-rights chief for the country said Thursday that abuses
are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein. Extrajudicial killings and
torture are soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both
government-backed militiamen and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths,
he said in an interview in Sydney, Australia. "Under Saddam, if you agreed
to forego your basic right to freedom of expression and thought, you were
physically more or less OK," said Mr. Pace. "But now, no: Here, you
have a primitive, chaotic situation where anybody can do anything they want to
anyone."
Meanwhile, Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour
al-Samaraie, head of the government’s Sunni Endowment, said that 37
Sunni mosques were set on fire during the attacks. He said another 86
mosques were attacked by grenades, gunfire or rockets and that six remain
occupied by Shiite extremists. The Sunni Endowment takes care of Sunni
mosques and religious shrines in Iraq. There is a comparable government agency
for Shiite sites.
Although the level of sectarian attacks has
diminished, the bloodshed continued Thursday.
Gunmen attacked a joint Iraqi police-army
checkpoint about 20 miles north of Samarra, killing six soldiers and four policemen,
said police Lt. Qassim Mohammed. The attackers set fire to the bodies before
fleeing the area, he said.
Bombings, gunfire and mortar blasts killed
47 more people Wednesday. Also, the U.S. military said a soldier died in a
noncombat-related incident Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein took sole
responsibility for ordering the trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually
executed in the 1980s. But he insisted in court Wednesday this was no crime as
they were suspected of participating in an assassination plot against him. The
trial was then adjourned until March 12.