Irak, governo, fazioni, USa Wsws 06-0324
Il “Consiglio di Sicurezza Nazionale” iracheno: un
passo verso un’aperta dittatura
James Cogan
Gli USA stanno preparando in Irak un “Consiglio di scurezza
nazionale” (NSC), extraparlamentare, come mediazione tra le fazioni irachene,
un compromesso che sarebbe stato raggiunto con l’Alleanza irachena unita (UIA).
Il rischio della guerra civile ne sarebbe la giustificazione.
Tecnicamente un organismo transitorio per superare la crisi
in corso, ma potrebbe durare a lungo:
a tre anni dall’invasione della coalizione a guida americana
la “democrazia” realizzata è rappresentata da una una cabala non prevista dalla
Costituzione irachena, non eletta, e creata a porte chiuse con le autorità americane,
che sta preparandosi per assumere il controllo delle forze armate, del bilancio
e dell’industria petrolifera.
Con lo stallo per la formazione del governo iracheno, la
lotta per la supremazia tra le fazioni irachene è condotta per le strade con la
guerra civile.
Il NSC, un’idea partorita da Zalmay Khalizad, ambasciatore
americano in Irak, e il leader nazionalista curdo Massoud Barzani, mira
soprattutto ad indebolire la posizione della UIA, e dovrebbe assumere il
controllo dello Stato iracheno, senza tener conto dello scontro in corso
nel parlamento.
La sua composizione:
–
19 membri, 9 agli sciiti, 4 ai curdi, 4 ai sunniti e 2
“laici”.
–
Unica concessione alla UIA è la maggioranza di 2/3 necessaria
per le decisioni, il che rappresenta una possibilità di veto per gli sciiti.
–
Dei 19 membri faranno parte presidente, i
vice-presidenti, il primo ministro e i vice primo-ministro. Non essendo ancora
formato il governo i posti saranno ricoperti da rappresentanti del governo di
transizione:
o
Ahmad Chalabi, uno dei tre vice premier (pur non
avendo ottenuto alcun seggio nelle recenti elezioni;
o
gli altri due vice premier Abed Mutlak al-Jiburi
(ex generale sotto Saddam), e Rowsch Shaways, nazionalista curdo;
o
il presidente in carica, Jalal Talabani, leader
nazionalista curdo;
o
un vicepresidente appartenente allo SCIRI;
o
l’altro vicepresidente sunnita Ghazi al-Yawar
(che ha collaborato con le forze americane dall’inizio della guerra);
o
Barzani, come presidente curdo;
o
il sunnita Adnan Pachachi, filo-americano;
o
Iyad Allawi rappresenterà il blocco “laico”, che
ha avuto solo 25 seggi. Nel 2004 Allawi, come primo ministro ad interim, ha
dato il via libera alla repressione contro la sollevazione sadrista delle città
sciite di Garbala e Najaf e all’attacco contro la sunnita Falluja. Gli USA lo
stanno preparando per il ruolo di capo del NSC.
La concentrazione del potere in un gruppo ristretto come
questo ne dovrebbe facilitare la manipolazione da parte di Khalizad e di altre
autorità americane.
La UIA è composta
da:
–
il movimento Da’wa del primo ministro Ibrahim
al-Jaafari;
–
il SCIRI (Consiglio supremo per la rivoluzione islamica
in Irak), legato all’Iran;
–
il movimento fondamentalista di Moqtada al-Sadr, che
vuole i posti di Primo ministro e degli Interni, e diversi portafogli per i
servizi sociali.
Si oppongono alle
richieste della UIA:
–
l’Alleanza nazionalista curda;
–
i partiti arabo sunniti;
–
la coalizione capeggiata da Iyad Allawi.
–
Assieme curdi, sunniti e blocchi laici hanno 133 seggi,
e sono in grado di bloccare il tentativo di un governo sciita.
–
I partiti sunniti ed Allawi accusano lo SCIRI di voler
inserire tramite il ministero degli Interni, i propri sostenitori nella forze
di sicurezza, per poter reprimere gli ex baathisti e la popolazione sunnita.
Chiedono che la UIA assegni i ministeri della sicurezza a “non settari”, cioè
ad ex generali delle forze armate di Saddam Hussein.
–
i nazionalisti
curdi sono ostili ad al-Jaafari e alla fazione Sadr, che si oppongono al
tentativo curdo di incorporare Kirkuk nel proprio territorio. Chiedono che
al-Jaafari sia affiancato da qualcun altro.
–
Dietro agli schieramenti opposti alla UIA ci sono gli
USA, che non vogliono che gli sciiti, legati all’Iran, controllino le forze di
sicurezza irachene.
–
Il Pentagono pensa che l’inserimento di ex-baahtisti
nel governo iracheno possa convincere la resistenza sunnita a porre fine alla
lotta.
Ci sono segnali di un prossimo violento attacco americano contro le
milizie sciite più estremiste, come il movimento sadrista.Wsws 06-03-24
Iraq’s “National Security Council”: a
move toward open dictatorship
By James Cogan
The announcement on March 19 that steps
are being taken to form an
extra-parliamentary “National Security Council” (NSC) is a warning that
the Bush administration is moving toward
an openly dictatorial regime in Iraq.
The White House’s attempts to portray Iraq
as a country in a transition to “democracy” are becoming increasingly
threadbare. More than three months after the December 2005 elections, there is
no new government and no indications that one will be formed anytime soon. No
party or alliance holds a majority of seats, let alone the two-thirds majority
constitutionally required to elect the presidential council that names the
prime minister.
The longer the intractable stalemate
continues, the more the struggle for dominance in post-invasion Iraq
is being fought out on the streets. A low-level civil war is raging between
rival Sunni and Shiite militias in Baghdad
and the surrounding regions. Since the destruction of the Shiite al-Askariya
mosque in Samarra
on February 22, bombings, mortar strikes, ethnic cleansing and targeted death
squad killings have claimed hundreds of lives on both sides of the sectarian
divide. At the same time, attacks on American troops by predominantly Sunni
guerillas are continuing unabated.
– The NSC is the Bush administration’s solution. The brainchild of Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Iraq,
and Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish nationalist leader who heads the
autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, the
intention is that the 19-member council will take control over the Iraqi state,
regardless of what happens in the bitterly divided parliament.
– The NSC is particularly
intended to undermine the position of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which holds 130 of the parliament’s 275 seats and dominates the
“transitional” government that was formed in May 2005.
– The UIA is comprised of
o
the Da’awa movement of the current prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari;
o
the Iranian-linked Supreme Council for
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI);
o
and the fundamentalist movement headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. It has insisted
on retaining the posts of prime minister and interior minister, as well as
the main portfolios responsible for providing social services.
– The UIA’s demands have been
rejected by
o
the Kurdish nationalist alliance,
o
Sunni Arab-based parties and
o
the coalition led by Iyad Allawi—the
émigré collaborator with the US
invasion who the Bush administration installed as the country’s “interim prime
minister” in 2004.
– Combined, the Kurd, Sunni
and secular blocs have 133 seats, more than enough to block any attempt by the
Shiite alliance to form a government.
– The Kurdish nationalists
are hostile to Jaafari and the Sadr faction, which opposes the Kurd’s
perspective of incorporating the oil-rich city of Kirkuk into the KRG.
– Sunni parties and Allawi
accuse SCIRI of using its control over the interior
ministry to infiltrate its supporters
into the security forces and wage a reign of terror against Sunni
supporters of the former Baathist regime and the Sunni population in general.
– The Kurds are insisting that the UIA nominate someone beside
Jaafari, while Sunni leaders are demanding the UIA hand over the security
ministries to so-called “non-sectarians”, a phrase considered by Shiites to
be little more than a euphemism for
former generals in Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated armed forces.
– Behind the opposition to
the UIA is the Bush administration. Under conditions of
rising tension between Washington and Tehran, the White House considers the Shiite
parties too close to the Iranian regime to control the Iraqi security forces.
The Pentagon also calculates that
incorporating elements of the ex-Baathist establishment into the Iraqi
government will convince elements of the resistance to end their guerilla
war against the occupation.
– The announcement of the NSC is clearly a compromise by
the UIA
after weeks of unrelenting US
pressure that they agree to form a “national unity government” with the other
factions. According to unnamed American officials, the council will function as a “parallel”
authority to the caretaker government
headed by Jaafari, while negotiations
continue in the parliament. It will formulate policy for the army and police, the budget and
the distribution of oil revenues. It will reportedly develop strategies
to disarm the Shiite militias and end the anti-occupation resistance that is
raging in the largely Sunni Arab provinces of western and central Iraq.
Despite there being no basis in the Iraqi constitution for any body apart
from the government exercising such sweeping powers, NSC decisions will only be referred
to the parliament if they require legislation.
– The security council will consist of nine members of the Shiite alliance, four from the Kurdish parties, four from Sunni parties and two
“secular” politicians. The only concession to the UIA is that a two-thirds vote will be required to make
any decision, giving a veto to the Shiite parties. The concentration of
power in the hands of such a small group, however, will make it much easier for
Khalilzad and other American officials to manipulate.
While
the US
is calling for ongoing operations against the Sunni resistance, there are hints
that it is considering another bloody crackdown against the more extreme Shiite
militias, such as elements of the Sadrist movement.
General Rick Lynch threatened last month that the US military would “not allow” the Sadrists to
take control of any area of Iraq.
By all reports, Sadr’s Mahdi Army openly controls most of the Shiite suburbs of
Baghdad.
The composition of the NSC underscores that its
purpose is to reduce the power of the Shiite fundamentalist alliance and
deliver it to more trusted collaborators of the US.
– The 19 members will
reportedly include the president, vice presidents, prime minister and deputy
prime ministers. As the new parliament has not
elected any of these positions, they
will be filled by the individuals who hold them in the caretaker “transitional”
government.
– Thus, Ahmad Chalabi, the
longtime CIA asset whose party did not win a single
seat in the recent elections, will sit
on the council, as he is one of the three deputy prime ministers in the
transitional administration.
– The other deputy prime
ministers are Abed Mutlak al-Jiburi, a former general under Saddam Hussein, and
Rowsch Shaways, a Kurdish nationalist. The pro-American Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is currently president.
While a SCIRI official is one vice president, the other is the Sunni leader Ghazi al-Yawar who has worked with the US forces since
the invasion.
– Barzani will have a place as KRG president, while pro-US Sunni Adnan Pachachi, another émigré with little
popular support, will sit on the council because he was named last week as the
caretaker speaker of parliament.
– Most significantly, Iyad
Allawi will represent the “secular” bloc, which won only 25 seats in
December. In 2004, Allawi, as interim prime minister, gave the green light for
the brutal US operations
against the short-lived Sadrist uprising in the Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf and the assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah. Earlier, in
June 2004, he was accused of personally executing six alleged Sunni insurgents
in a Baghdad
prison. While he is despised among ordinary Iraqis, he has relations with the
ruling elite and military office caste that held sway under Hussein and is
considered reliable in Washington
due to his role in the first year of the occupation.
For this reason, he is being groomed by the White House to play the role of Iraq’s
new strongman.
– Press reportage has
consistently referred to Allawi as the most likely head of the NSC. An unnamed “senior political source” told Reuters: “The job was created
for him. We have been discussing it for at least two months.”
At a press conference on March 21, Bush
declared he was “encouraged” by the “progress toward a council that gives each
of the country’s main political factions a voice in making security and
economic policies”. He hailed the formation of the NSC as “an indicator that Iraq’s
leaders understand the importance of a government of national unity”.
In reality, the discussion in Washington, and among the Iraqi
leaders closest to the White House, is that the security council provides a
means to bypass the political impasse in the parliament altogether. In
interview with Reuters on March 21, Allawi sought
to use the danger of civil war to justify the NSC—and himself—assuming
dictatorial executive powers immediately.
“Unfortunately, the talks [in
parliament] are still about the concept of a national unity government. We are
saying, let’s form a government [the security council] until things are more
stable”, he declared. “Then we could change the government. But the tragedy of
killing and terrorism must not go on.” The main task of the NSC, he said, was
to take control of the security apparatus and “strengthen the army, police,
security and intelligence services”.
Hinting at the discussion in occupation
circles that the NSC may become a permanent fixture, Reuters reported: “Technically, the council would
be a temporary body designed to help pull Iraq out of crisis, sources said,
but it might be needed for a long time.” In other words, an unconstitutional
and unelected cabal, worked out behind closed doors with American officials, is
preparing to take open-ended control of the armed forces, the budget and the
oil industry. This is Iraqi “democracy” three years after the US invasion.