PRAGUE - The weekly al-Hawza had been the
mouthpiece of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's radical
movement, carrying his fiery sermons on its front page
along with articles sharply critical of the US-led
occupation.
But after Iraq's former US
administrator, L Paul Bremer, ordered the newspaper
closed on March 28 for allegedly inciting anti-coalition
violence, the chaos only got worse.
The paper's
closure and the arrest a few days later of a close
Muqtada aide in the holy city of Najaf set off an
uprising by Muqtada's forces in Baghdad and Shi'ite
areas in central and southern Iraq.
A series of
truces has somewhat subdued the fighting, which remains
separate from an ongoing insurgency involving Sunni
Muslims loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
and foreign militants.
On Sunday, interim Iraqi
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, himself a Shi'ite, issued a
decree allowing the paper to be reopened. Allawi's
office said the move was part of an effort to show the
premier's "absolute belief in the freedom of the press".
Yahia Said, a research fellow at the London
School of Economics, told Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty (RFE/RL) that Allawi's move is part of a broader
strategy to strengthen support for the government as it
copes with growing violence, including a car bombing
that killed at least nine people and wounded another 60
outside a Baghdad police station on Monday.
According to Said, that strategy represents a
rejection of the one taken by Bremer's Coalition
Provisional Authority, which stepped down on June 28.
"In general, it's part of a broader strategy by the new
government to, if you like, split the insurgency and
offer those who are in it for allegedly nationalist
motives a chance to join the political process, to lay
down their arms, and participate in the process that
will ultimately lead to elections and eventual full
sovereignty or full independence, and then isolate the
terrorists this way."
Other analysts agree.
Julian Lindsey French, of the Geneva Center for Security
Policy in Switzerland, said Allawi is using the al-Hawza
restoration as a way of alienating the foreign fighters
now active in Iraq.
"I think ultimately what the
interim prime minister wants to do is split the foreign
jihadists away from domestic groups who are really vying
over the future political order in Iraq itself," French
said. "And by doing so, he's indicating goodwill toward
Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia and his group. And it
seems to me to be a political risk, but nevertheless a
serious calculation to isolate the foreign jihadists
from the domestic movements."
Muqtada's
representatives welcomed the ban's lifting, but said the
newspaper's slant will remain unchanged and will still
be "directed against the occupation".
"They're
continuing with their belligerent rhetoric, really. I've
heard comments of them saying that the newspaper will be
unrelenting in its attacks against these 'collaborators'
and so on, and show the reality of this new government,
and so on," Said said. "But ultimately, obviously,
Muqtada has been making noises to the effect that he is
willing to join the fold and start a new page with the
new government. [But that] will remain to be seen."
Meanwhile, after a two-month absence from public
view, Muqtada made an unannounced visit on Sunday to
Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest
sites.
The fanfare surrounding the cleric's
visit was described as worthy of a rock star, with
guards and aides cutting a path through hundreds of
chanting and cheering supporters as they led Muqtada
into the mosque for prayers.
Muqtada and his
aides have repeatedly called Allawi's unelected
government illegitimate. But they have also said they
will adopt a wait-and-see policy as the country prepares
for a general election due in January.
According
to analyst Said, the government is also adopting a
similar approach to Muqtada, for whom US forces issued
an arrest warrant in April on charges of murdering a
moderate rival cleric in Najaf in April 2003.
"In general, the new Iraqi government has been
much more lenient with Muqtada al-Sadr than the
coalition," Said said. "They are allowing him to address
the charges through his lawyer rather than appearing in
court himself. And they are trying to give him a
face-saving way to climb down, which has been widely
acknowledged as the best approach - to kind of, if you
like, pacify him."
Copyright 2004 RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission ofRadio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20036.
