BAGHDAD
- The latest outbreak of violence in Baghdad has
shattered ceasefire talks between Shi'ite militants and
the Iraqi government.
After a successful if
fragile ceasefire in the holy city Najaf, it was hoped
that talks in the impoverished Sadr City of Baghdad
would become a model for further negotiations between
the government and followers of the Shi'ite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr.
The government of appointed
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi along with the US military
has been engaged in daily talks with leaders in Sadr
City. Many of the million or so Shi'ites there are
Muqtada supporters.
The deadlock remained as
violence tore through Sadr City. Iraqi Health Ministry
officials said at least 34 people died on Tuesday and
170 were wounded. This followed clashes on Monday. Three
US soldiers also died - more than 1,000 Americans have
now died since the invasion of the country last year.
The violence came a day after a suicide attack
on a military convoy outside Fallujah killed seven US
marines and three Iraqi soldiers. In retaliatory heavy
raids in Fallujah, up to 100 Iraqis were killed.
The Sadr City peace talks were being held after
Muqtada agreed a ceasefire in Najaf and asked his Mehdi
Army to observe nationwide peace with US and Iraqi
forces. But in effect each city is expected to negotiate
its own agreement with the government.
The talks
in Sadr City have been particularly significant. "The
negotiations in Sadr City are very important," Muqtada's
spokesman in Baghdad, Sheikh Salah Jasem al-Obaidi, told
Inter Press Service (IPS). "Many people in Sadr City
have friends and relatives in other cities and
governorates. If talks fail here, people in other parts
of the country will have a bad impression of the
sincerity of the government to reach real peace with the
people."
US officials agree that talks must
succeed, but for different reasons. "A lot of these
people move from one part of the country to another," a
senior US military official who cannot be named in line
with military rules told IPS. "The sooner we can get an
agreement with them, the sooner we can isolate parts of
the problems and move on to other fish."
Officials closely informed about the Sadr City
talks said they had hoped the negotiations would be
completed last week. They said one reason for the delay
was that the Sadr City delegation did not include
Muqtada's representatives at first.
"In the
beginning it was only the leaders of the tribes, but we
realized that they could not really negotiate strongly
with the Americans, so delegates from the [Muqtada] Sadr
office joined them," al-Obaidi said.
Since then
two negotiating points seem to have dragged the talks to
no end. "One of the most important items is the weapons
of people inside Sadr City," al-Obaidi said. "The
American troops said that we have to start our truce
after surrender of weapons. The Iraqi tribes refused."
Al-Obaidi and other Muqtada advisers say they
want a buy-back program in which the government will pay
for guns turned in by Sadr City militiamen. No one has a
close idea how many guns and of what kind are stashed in
Sadr City, but they are generally believed to include
Soviet-era AK-47s, semi-automatic machine-guns and
shoulder-fired rockets.
US and Iraqi officials
say they cannot accept a buy-back plan before the truce
because militiamen could sell some guns and attack them
with the rest.
The Coalition Provisional
Authority that handed power to the appointed Iraqi
government in June had offered a similar buy-back deal
to insurgents. But US officials admit that few took up
the offer.
The other sticking point in the talks
is the presence of US forces in the district. Muqtada
negotiators demand replacement of US troops by Iraqi
police and security forces. Al-Obaidi said the US
insists on maintaining its forces in the district.
"They say that the Iraqi police cannot protect
the city," he said. "The Iraqi tribes, the head of the
tribes said, no, you have to retreat and we give our
word that we will help them ourselves. We will help the
Iraqi police ourselves in order to maintain the place
peaceful."
Police Chief Nabil Abdulghader said
last week that there are 10 police stations in Sadr
City, each with 20-30 policemen. US officials say that
for security reasons they cannot divulge the number of
troops they have stationed in the area.
Residents say the US Army is trying to negotiate
on the one hand and arrest as many Mehdi Army militiamen
as possible on the other. "That's just bad policy and
politics," said a leading Iraqi politician. "If
anything, the Americans should have learned by now that
power politics does not work in this country, at least
not in the long term."
The deadlock has also
raised doubts about plans by the Allawi government to
improve Sadr City, perhaps the poorest neighborhood in
Baghdad. Allawi sent several of his ministers to Sadr
City last week to meet local representatives. The
government has promised to spend US$345 million to build
schools and houses there and to provide much-needed
water and electricity.
"The government would
love to, and can invest in these areas," said Hamed
Kifaee, former Iraqi Governing Council spokesman. "But
first, there has to be peace. You cannot invest and
build up infrastructure when people are shooting at each
other."
