Risk of Civil War Spreads Fear Across Nation
Many worry that strains between Sunnis and Shiites could
ignite a
conflict that would overwhelm U.S. troops and the government.
By Jeffrey Fleishman
Times Staff Writer
May 29, 2005
BAGHDAD — Explosions rip through marketplaces, scattering blood and
vegetables and leaving women wailing in the alleys. Bodies bob in
rivers and are dug up from garbage dumps and parks. Kidnappers troll
the streets, sirens howl through morning prayers and mortar rounds
whistle against skylines of minarets.
Iraqis awake each day to the sounds of violence. With little respite,
many wonder whether strange, terrible forces are arrayed against them.
They fear that weeks of sectarian and clan violence, claiming the lives
of all types from imams to barefoot fishermen, are a prelude to civil
war.
"I'm worried 24 hours a day," said Zainab Hassan, a
university student majoring in computer science. "Whenever I hear bomb
or shooting, I call my mother and husband to check if they're OK. I can
see a civil war coming, it's obvious. Everybody is talking about it. We
have to be more careful."
Iraqis such as Abu Mohammed, who
sells books along the Tigris River, struggle to comprehend how the
euphoria of January's election has withered so quickly. They find
contradictions rather than answers. Life has become a vicious thrum,
with boys clinging to courtyard walls and gun battles beneath the date
palms appearing live on TV.
Interviews with Iraqis from Basra
to Baghdad to Mosul suggest that much of the nation fears that
intensifying strains between Sunni and Shiite Muslims could ignite a
conflict that would overwhelm the increasingly unpopular Iraqi
government and 140,000 U.S. troops. Abu Mohammed blames, among others,
Saddam Hussein, who, even from his jail cell, seems to taunt the
country.
"Saddam created hostile sentiments between Sunni and
Shiite," Mohammed said. "It was like a fire hidden under a cover and
waiting to turn into a blaze. The remnants of Saddam Hussein are now
trying to stoke and enlarge this fire. I blame both the Shiites and the
Sunnis for playing parts in stirring up hostilities."
Nearly
700 people have been killed in car bombings and by shootings and
beheadings in the last month. What concerns U.S. officials and ordinary
Iraqis is that militant leaders such as Abu Musab Zarqawi are
attempting to instigate a two-track war: one, the continuing battle
between insurgents and American and Iraqi forces, and another between
Shiite and Sunni Arabs that could possibly draw in Kurds from the north.
"It's time for Iraqis to stand together to foil the dirty attempts of
the enemies to implant sectarian war on this injured country," said
Naim Salman, a civil servant in Baghdad. "The government is trying its
best, but it is still not enough. It is a new government and it needs
time, especially when terrorists are infiltrating ministries."
The Sunnis were the beneficiaries and power behind Hussein's Baathist
regime. Many of them, including influential leaders, opposed the
Shiite-dominated government that followed Hussein and formed the heart
of the insurgency.
Some Sunnis have begun to rejoin the
political process. But so far, the government has been unable to
persuade the nation's minority Sunni population to abandon its
suspicions, and the squabbles in the corridors of the National Assembly
have inspired violence tied to religion and clan.
Nafi
Alfartoosi, editor of a newspaper in Samawah in Shiite-dominated
southern Iraq, said, "The failure of the government to stop sectarian
terrorism of Sunnis against Shiites has deepened the gap between the
government and the people. I am sure that many of the millions who
voted are sorry for going out on Jan. 30. This weakness in stopping
sectarian terrorism and halting bloodshed is encouraging" those seeking
a civil war.
Sunni and Shiite organizations, along with Iraqi
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, have sought to calm tensions over the
last week. But the effort is hindered by spiraling violence that since
April 29 has included the killing of at least 10 Sunni and Shiite
clerics, among them Mohammed Tahir Allaq, a representative of one of
the nation's top Shiite leaders, Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed Hakim.
Some Shiite and Sunni leaders have blamed each other for the
assassinations.
Images of the coffins of clerics being carried through the streets have
unnerved a public that has had scant peace since Hussein was toppled
two years ago and the country occupied by U.S.-led forces that quickly
encountered an insurgency. The January election brought a brief gust of
normality, but that has shattered with the surge in car bombings.
In a Baghdad University poll taken earlier this year, more than 80% of
the Iraqis questioned expected their government to gain strength in
coming months. That has dropped to 45% today.
With the
insurgency killing more civilians, anger against American forces has
intensified. Many Iraqis view the U.S. as an unwanted godfather who,
despite his prowess and streams of military convoys, can't provide the
basics let alone protect them from extremists who badger the nation
with Internet screeds and jihadist rants on the radio.
"I only
want to put this question to you," said Sana Abdul-Kareem, a dentist
with four children. "Why can't the U.S., with all its might and
capabilities, impose security here? How come with all our oil they
cannot provide us with electricity? My son was so happy when the
American soldiers first came. But after two years of failure to make
good on their promises, he abhors them."
Baghdad resident Ali
Jalal said: "The Americans are behind these problems. They don't want
the country to be stabilized…. The Iraqi government is like a doll in
the hands of the Americans."
Many Iraqis choose denial to
cope with the seething times around them. A Shiite will tell you he is
married to a Sunni, or a Sunni to a Shiite. They will tell you their
families are an intermingling of Iraq's classes and religions and that
they have lived in harmony for generations. But every day new families
line up outside morgues and new markers are added to graveyards. They
blame it on terrorists and outside forces, who, they say, manipulate
their lives much as Hussein did.
"It's a policy of divide and
conquer being applied by our occupiers," said Abu Izz, a Baghdad
antiques dealer who was born in Fallouja. A civil war will not succeed
because Iraqis are all brothers and relatives, he added.
"You
may not believe this, but some of my relatives are promujahedin
[Sunnis], and others are members of the Badr Brigade [Shiites] and
others are clergy. This is how we are interrelated."
"Iraq is one nation, one land and one heart," said Sinaa Ali Musa, a
state worker from Samawah.
But Musa, a Shiite, conceded there were divisions. "I think the Shiites
are being subjected to all kinds of terrorism because the Sunnis are
losing power."
Others consider Sunnis the victims. "There has
been a flagrant violation of Sunni rights," said Saad Abdul Aziz Siqar,
a Sunni from Basra. "This is affecting relationships between the two
sects and could lead to war…. The Shiites have power and authority over
us and are treating us like a minority."
Navigating such chaos psychologically, and even on rural roads and city
streets, has trapped many Iraqis.
"It's the same problem everyday — traffic, traffic, roads are closed
and in addition to that, we have national guards aiming their weapons
toward us," said Tanya Mazin, a student at Baghdad University.
"We are living in stress and fear. I do not think this will end one day
because it's going from bad to worse."
Times
staff writers Suhail Ahmad, Saif Rasheed and Zainab Hussein in Baghdad,
special correspondents Othman Ghanim in Basra and Hassan Halawa in
Samawah and a correspondent in Mosul contributed to this report.
