IRAQ: Burial in Najaf for Baghdad bomb victims

The cars streamed into Najaf over the last two days as families buried loved ones killed in Sunday’s double bombing in Baghdad. 

By Tuesday afternoon, what was thought to be the last of the dead were brought to the Valley of Peace cemetery, the most sacred burial ground for Iraq’s Shiite majority.

Undertaker Mehdi Assadi had listened to mourners’ screams as at least 80 of the estimated 155 killed in Sunday’s Baghdad bombing were buried in the Valley of Peace. Families unloaded loved ones from wood coffins to be washed and then wrapped in white shrouds. From there, Assadi or another grave digger led  mourners to the burial plots. At the graves, Assadi presided over final prayers and recited the names of Shiite Islam's 12 imams. 

IRAQ: Q & A with Shiite religious and political leader Ammar Hakim

Ammar Hakim sits in a mansion alongside the Tigris River. The 39-year-old cleric became the head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (formerly referred to as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council) in late August after the death of his father, Abdelaziz Hakim, from lung cancer. Now the party’s future rests on his shoulders; Hakim may also very well help choose Iraq’s next government and decide whether his rival Prime Minister Nouri Maliki gets a second term in office. Hakim has been a prominent player on the Iraqi political stage since 2007. His late father groomed him for his leadership role and recommended him as his successor. 

But Hakim heads his party at a time of titanic shifts in Iraq’s political process: the main Shiite political coalition has splintered, with Hakim playing an important role in forming the new Iraqi National Alliance, while Maliki has chosen to run his own list. Iraq's political landscape has also tilted away from the religious-based politics that initially benefited the ISCI in the first national elections after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Now, all sides, including Hakim’s, are seeking to present themselves as post-sectarian parties, concerned more with issues of stability and reconstruction than sect.

ISCI, once arguably the most influential Shiite party in the government, has suffered setbacks in the last year as it was voted out in provincial elections in January in most of southern Iraq. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hakim floated the idea of an alliance with Maliki before or after the elections through a broader bloc, called the National Front, in order to decide on the basic shape of the next government and its policies. He warned such a partnership was necessary to avoid a lengthy period of drift ahead of the formation of the next government. He also chastised the Maliki government, which ISCI has participated in, and downplayed the prime minister’s individual achievements. Hakim also hit out at his critics who have labeled his party’s new coalition as being under Iranian influence and not going far enough in reaching out to Sunni parties. The young leader’s moves in this next stage, ahead of the American drawdown in Iraq, could very well determine his future and that of his party’s.

IRAQ: Concerns grow about election law delay

The man charged with organizing next January's crucial nationwide elections is fretting that it will soon be too late to hold the poll unless parliament comes up with an election law this week.

Faraj Haideri, the head of Iraq's election commission, had given parliament an Oct. 16 deadline to pass the law, saying he needs three months to plan and prepare for the election, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2010. Then he said he could push the deadline to Oct. 20.

As yet another day passed with no sign of the necessary legislation in sight, Haideri warned today that the commission could wait only until Thursday if the election is to be held on time.

"We feel that now it is getting very dangerous," he said in a telephone interview. "If they don't write the law as soon as possible, by the end of this week, we can't do the election on the 16th of January."

The latest snag is over how to organize voting in the disputed province of Kirkuk.  But legislators are also divided on the question of whether voters should be able to cast ballots for individual candidates, a so-called open list system, or simply for party names, a closed-list system.

Haideri said he would need less time to organize an election based on closed lists, because then it would not be necessary to print ballots with the names of individual candidates. But public opinion, most parliamentarians and the powerful Shiite clergy have expressed a preference for open lists as the more democratic of the two options.

Haideri said he suspected, in common with many Iraqis, that some legislators are deliberately dragging out the negotiations so that it becomes impossible to hold the election with open lists – which would subject individual legislators to the whims of voters.

"Maybe they are saying they want open lists to show a good face to the Iraqi people, but really they want closed lists," he said.

There was certainly no sense of urgency in the halls of parliament, where several lawmakers from the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council bloc said they believed the election commission needed only two months to prepare for the election, not three.

"That's not correct," said Haideri.

-- Liz Sly in Baghdad

IRAQ: Disputes over Kirkuk delay new election law

The thorny question of how to organize voting in the disputed province of Kirkuk is threatening to undermine the integrity of crucial national elections that the U.S. military hopes will pave the way for a mass drawdown of American troops.

The Iraqi parliament today missed a second presumed deadline for passing an election law to regulate the poll, scheduled for January, because of the dispute over voting procedures in the oil-rich province, which is claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans.

At issue is the question of whether all the current residents of Kirkuk should be eligible to vote. In recent years, thousands of Kurds have moved into the area from Kurdistan, supposedly to reverse the Arabization policies of Saddam Hussein, who expelled Kurds and settled Arabs there.

But Arabs and Turkomans say the Kurdish influx has far exceeded the expulsion of Kurds during the Hussein era and that special measures needed to be taken to avoid the Kurds having an unfair advantage in Kirkuk.

Various proposals have been mooted, including one suggested by the U.N. that would pre-assign the province's 13 seats to Kurdish, Arab and Turkoman candidates. Another proposal suggests dividing Kirkuk into regions in such a way as to guarantee representation to Turkomans and Arabs as well as Kurds.

But in negotiations today, the Kurds said they would reject any special arrangement for Kirkuk as anti-constitutional and instead proposed the formation of a committee to vet voter registration lists in all Iraq's provinces -- something that could prove a lengthy exercise.

IRAQ: Kurdistan's 'Shakira' causes shock waves in her homeland

A sultry Kurdish singer who models herself on the Colombian superstar Shakira is causing a sensation in her socially conservative homeland of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Dashni Murad, 23, wears figure-hugging bodices, skimpy skirts and plunging necklines as she writhes to the rhythm of songs fusing Kurdish and Western beats -- in the way that Shakira has drawn inspiration from her Middle Eastern heritage.

Mosque preachers have railed against Murad and some TV channels have refused to broadcast her clips because they consider her gyrating dances and revealing clothing to be an offense to Kurdish morals.

But Murad refuses to be deterred, and says she will press ahead with her mission to transform Kurdish culture.

“I want to change Kurdish style," she said in an interview in Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital. "I want the youth to see my dance. I want to present something distinctive, far from the half-dead old style.”

IRAQ: Maliki -- the view from the street

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced a new coalition for national elections on Thursday that aims to break with the basic template of sectarian politics that has driven Iraqi politics since 2003.

Questions linger about the extent of Maliki’s evolution and his ability to sustain a long-term coalition of such disparate interests, including secular nationalists, Sunni tribal sheiks and Shiite religious nationalists.

However, interviews in Baghdad revealed both the enduring appeal of Maliki’s message and the continuing hold of sectarian-based identity politics on the population.

Below are the comments of some Iraqis interviewed by The Times in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Adhiniyah, once a fount for Iraq’s Sunni insurgency.

IRAQ: Shiite political party seeks new talent, says don't be shy

Today, Shiite cleric Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, a senior member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, gave a telling glimpse of his political party’s internal thinking, with national elections on the horizon.

SIIC, has had a rough year. In August, the party’s leader,  Abdelaziz Hakim, passed away and was succeeded by his 38-year-old son, Ammar Hakim. The death came after the party’s trouncing in provincial elections last January. Rumors abounded about internal divisions over the young Hakim’s succession. The movement has also watched as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, once thought of as weak, has emerged as the most influential player in Iraq’s political arena.  No longer beholden to SIIC, Maliki has opted not to join his old partners but instead to assemble his own list for the national elections, scheduled for January.

Forsaken by Maliki, SIIC has carried on with its own slate, called the Iraqi National Alliance, made up mostly of Shiite religious parties. It has ambitions to outdo Maliki at his own game by presenting itself as the true defenders of nationalism and good governance.

IRAQ: Families celebrate Eid holiday at park along Tigris River

Young people buy cotton candy at Baghdad's Abu Nawas street park to celebrate the Eid holiday.

 

On the last night of the Muslim holiday of Eid, families packed Baghdad's park on Abu Nawas street on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. People rejoiced at a quiet holiday and the gradual reduction in attacks since late 2007, although the Iraqi capital remains a violent and unpredictable place.

Families gathered in this park stretching along the curved bank of the Tigris, which has traditionally been a festive gathering spot for families with its parched grassy lawns and fish restaurants long before the 2003 ouster of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  Musicians played the oud and guitar. Drummers banged away, and fireworks illuminated the sky in spurts.

"We come here on a daily basis at 7 p.m. and stay here to enjoy ourselves till midnight. Security is good and we feel great. We don't fear anything. Terrorism is over. Our government is stronger," said Iman Adel, talking about her family's daily trips to the park during the Eid holiday. "We can lead a normal life now. Take a good look around and you will understand what I mean."

IRAQ: Police bust artifacts traffickers

Iraqi police have recovered stolen antiques, including the bust of a Sumerian king, in a sting operation.  An Iraqi commander said three suspects were arrested in Kirkuk after they tried to sell pieces from the Sumerian period that lasted from 4000 to 2000 BC.

"A specialist army and intelligence unit arrested three people involved in the theft and trafficking of Iraqi antiquities,” General Abdel Amir al-Zaidi told journalists.

The men were taken into custody after attempting to sell one of the eight stolen artifacts for $160,000 to an undercover officer posing as a buyer over the weekend.

"We received intelligence tips about a group trying to sell precious antiques in a small town called al-Abbasi. We formed an undercover intelligence team to meet the smugglers and pretend to be interested in buying the eight pieces," said General al-Zaidi.

The money from the art sting, he added, was to be used to finance “terrorist actions.”

IRAQ: Baghdad warns neighbors, airs militants' confessions on TV

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has turned the heat up on his Arab neighbors after last month’s double bombings at the foreign and finance ministries, which killed about 100 people. Maliki and his government have repeatedly accused Syria of providing shelter to those behind the blasts. Syria has denied the charge, and some Iraqi politicians have raised serious questions about whether Syria or the Baath Party was involved.

Today, Maliki once more slammed his neighbors. “We will continue looking [for a way] to close all the gaps and the doors from which the killers can breathe again. We censure the others from our brothers, friends and the neighborly countries,” Maliki said on a visit to the southern city of Karbala. “They used to say that they are with us and they did stand with us in certain situations, but how can we describe the practice of embracing the killers. To where will they be exported [next] time, to Iraq again or to a different country? Can the evil be contained to one specific country?” 

Maliki has asked the U.N. Security Council to establish a formal investigation into the bombings. He has also accused Syrian intelligence agents of sitting in on a meeting in July of Baath Party officials and Islamic militants. The government sees it as the latest episode in which Syria has allegedly been complicit in the activities of anti-Iraq militants. Iraqi security officials confirmed today that they had sent additional security forces to reinforce the vast Syria-Iraq border. 

Since the bombings, the government has revived the practice of showing taped confessions from alleged militants. Two confessions have been shown on state television and a third was aired at a news conference. The first confession was of an Iraqi arrested for the Aug. 19 attack, who blamed Baath Party leaders in Syria for planning the attack. The other confessions have shown foreign fighters recounting their alleged travels through Syria. There is no way to verify whether the taped remarks were genuine or staged.  But they mark a concerted effort to blame Syria in part for recent security breaches.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the state channel broadcast the purported confessions of an alleged fighter from Yemen named Mohammed Oud.

The following are excerpts from the broadcast: