IRAQ: IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI SAYS CIVIL WAR FEARS ARE OVERBLOWN WHILE SHI'ITE PRIME MINISTERIAL CANDIDATE HUSSEIN AL-SHAHRISTANI SAYS FOREIGN FORCES MUST BE REMOVED
Record ID:
208331
IRAQ: IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI SAYS CIVIL WAR FEARS ARE OVERBLOWN WHILE SHI'ITE PRIME MINISTERIAL CANDIDATE HUSSEIN AL-SHAHRISTANI SAYS FOREIGN FORCES MUST BE REMOVED
- Title: IRAQ: IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI SAYS CIVIL WAR FEARS ARE OVERBLOWN WHILE SHI'ITE PRIME MINISTERIAL CANDIDATE HUSSEIN AL-SHAHRISTANI SAYS FOREIGN FORCES MUST BE REMOVED
- Date: 20th January 2005
- Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 19, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI SPEAKING TO REPORTER 0.05 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI, SAYING: "Everyone knows that those victimizing Shia are not necessarily Sunni -- -- it might be that they are Sunni but that does not mean that they carry Sunni policies or thoughts but this understanding is to try and fish in troubled water and imply that there will be a civil war." 0.31 3. AL-JAAFARI SITTING IN OFFICE 0.36 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AL-JAAFARI, SAYING: "The Sunni are not boycotting the elections, the Sunnis as a political power are participating -- as part of our people, part of our towns, they will participate. There are some who want to are trying and prevent the Sunnis from participating in the elections. " 0.57 5. CU: AL-JAAFARI SITTING IN OFFICE 1.01 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AL-JAAFARI, SAYING: "When elections are held in circumstances like here, a turnout above 50 percent turnout is considered a success. I was hoping that all Iraqis will participate. I don't believe in the division of Iraq -- I believe all Iraqis must participate in building the country." 1.37 7. WS: AL-JAAFARI SITTING IN INTERVIEW 1.43 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HUSSEIN AL-SHAHRISTANI, FORMER NUCLEAR SCIENTIST AND CANDIDATE FOR PRIME MINISTER, SAYING: "He (Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani) said that 'what will make me happy or what will be rewarding is to see Iraqis live well in their country. The people welcomed me for more than 50 years, so the least is to see them become leaders in their own country and I want to serve them. Do not allow another tyrant to rule you and do not let anyone, like Saddam, to enslave you and do not allow foreign forces occupy you and dictate your national will.'" 2.30 9. CU: AL-SHAHRISTANI'S HANDS 2.36 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AL-SHAHRISTANI, SAYING: "They have failed to install and support competent and honest people in government posts to rebuild the country and serve the people. The Iraqi people have been very much aware of this. This is something that has to be rectified. I personally believe the reason why this has been allowed to go on is because there has been no elected body that can hold them accountable. If the elected body feels that it is responsible to the people who elected them, then they will be in a much better position to hold the ministers accountable for what they are doing and their failures..." 3.31 11. HUSSEIN AL-SHAHRISTANI, FORMER NUCLEAR SCIENTIST AND CANDIDATE FOR PRIME MINISTER SPEAKING TO REPORTER IN CORRIDOR 3.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 4th February 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA9EAR97F8MNIWRGZW78GAACWPR
- Story Text: Iraqi vice president says civil war fears are
overblown and Iraqi Shi'ite politician wants U.S.-led
forces out.
Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a strong
contender to lead post elections Iraq, has dismissed fears
that the country could plunge into civil war despite a rise
in sectarian killings.
Attacks on the mostly Shi'ite U.S.-backed security
forces and Shi'ite civilians living south of Baghdad, as
well as Sunnis who worked in the former Baathist government
have raised the spectre of harmony between sects that
existed for centuries could be coming to an end.
But Jaafari, who leads the Islamist Dawa Party, said
civil peace will continue to reign because Iraqis generally
did not hate each other, although Saddam Hussein' Tikriti
clan ruled Iraq from 1968-2003 using divide and rule
tactics that left most of the majority Shi'ites poor and
dispossessed.
"Everyone knows that those victimizing Shia are not
necessarily Sunni -- -- it might be that they are Sunni but
that does not mean that they carry Sunni policies or
thoughts but this understanding is to try and fish in
troubled water and imply that there will be a civil war,
Jaafari told Reuters on Wednesday (January 19).
"The Sunni are not boycotting the elections, the Sunnis
as a political power are participating -- as part of our
people, part of our towns, they will participate. There are
some who want to are trying and prevent the Sunnis from
participating in the elections."
Shi'ite officials say insurgents who include militant
Sunni Islamists from outside Iraq have been trying to
ferment civil war by killing Shi'ite civilians and clerics.
Sunnis say that Shi'ite Islamist parties, including
Dawa, have been targeting former Sunni officials and
staffing the government with their supporters regardless of
merit.
Jaafari denies using violence or a sectarian bent.
A doctor by training, Jaafari fled Iraqi in 1980, escaped
Saddam's persecution of Dawa that culminated in the
execution of the party's founder Mohammad Baqer a-Sader,
and the leading Shi'ite political thinker of the modern era.
Although Dawa is an Islamist Party, its manifesto is
based on the values Sadr advocated -- pluralism, human
rights and rule of law.
As vice president Jaafari's role is ceremonial, but he
is among the top enemies on a Shi'ite list formed under the
auspices of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most
influential Shi'ite cleric, and expected to dominate the
2750 member parliament.
Jaafari has emerged as a contender to lead Iraq and the
popularity of his Dawa Party and the reputation of its
founder are major forces, but the party lacks crucial U.S.
support.
The soft spoken physician expressed confidence that
the elections in Iraq will succeed despite the boycott of
major Sunni groups or calls by them to postpone the
elections.
"When elections are held in circumstances like here, a
turnout above 50 percent turnout is considered a success. I
was hoping that all Iraqis will participate. I don't
believe in the division of Iraq -- I believe all Iraqis
must participate in building the country."
Other names touted for prime minister post include
Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi, who has been building
ties with U.S. officials Mehdi was an official in the Iraqi
Baath party. He later became a Maoist and then joined the
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is
leading the Shi'ite elections list.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is backed by
influential U.S. officials, could also hang to power,
although, Mohammad Tawfiq, a leading Kurdish official, told
the financial times on Thursday (January 20), Allawi is
unlikely to remain in office, partly due to failing to
improve security.
An Iraqi politician on a powerful Shi'ite election list
said a new elected parliament should negotiate the
withdrawal of U.S.-led troops.
Hussein al-Shahristani, a devout Muslim and eminent
nuclear scientist, is a confidant of Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, the most influential cleric in the majority
Shi'ite community.
He said that foreign forces must be removed, adding
that Sistani had said: "Do not allow another tyrant to rule
you and do not let anyone, like Saddam, to enslave you and
do not allow foreign forces occupy you and dictate your
national will."
He is touted as a candidate to take over as prime
minister after the January 30 elections. The bespectacled
scientist, who was tortured under Saddam and spent years in
solitary confinement in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, says he
does not want the post.
A Shi'ite bloc founded under the auspices of Sistani is
expected to win a majority in the 275-member assembly that
will choose a government and write a new constitution.
Shahristani said the U.S.-backed interim government had
lost trust by hiring Baathist agents suspected of committing crimes.
Political parties have been also staffing the
government with their followers, rather than on merit.
"They have failed to install and support competent and
honest people in government posts to rebuild the country
and serve the people. The Iraqi people have been very much
aware of this. This is something that has to be rectified.
I personally believe the reason why this has been allowed
to go on is because there has been no elected body that can
hold them accountable. If the elected body feels that it is
responsible to the people who elected them, then they will
be in a much better position to hold the ministers
accountable for what they are doing and their failures to
provide for the basic services" Shahristani told Reuters in
an interview.
Shahristani turned down the post of prime minister when
it was offered to him in June and says he prefers instead
to promote human rights and a constitution to check the
power of post-Saddam rulers.
The scientist has always been close to religious
figures.
Just before Saddam sent him to torture chambers in
1979, he secretly went to see the country's then top
theologian, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, for advice.
Shahristani had been feeling the heat from authorities
and wanted to leave Iraq, but Sadr urged him to stay to
help free Iraq from the Baath Party's grip.
Sharistani was arrested by Saddam's agents, who told
his wife and three children he would be away for three
days. He ended up in jail for 11 years, where he recited
mathematical formulae to help himself survive. Saddam later
had Sadr executed.
He escaped from Abu Ghraib during the 1991 Gulf war. He
spent the next 12 years in exile in London and Iran,
accused by some of being too close to Tehran.
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