Monday, September 04, 2006
Tribal leaders threaten to lead uprising
Tribal
On Saturday a coalition of 300 Iraqi tribal leaders met in Ramal, a village southwest of Kirkuk, and demanded the release of Saddam Hussein. Mainly Sunni Arabs, the chiefs said they planned to hold rallies in Sunni cities throughout the country to insist that Saddam be freed and that the charges against him and his co-defendants dropped. "If the demand is not carried out, we will lead a general, sweeping and popular uprising," said Shaikh Wassfy Al Assy, brother of the chief of the 1.5 million strong Obaidi tribe.
On Saturday a coalition of 300 Iraqi tribal leaders met in Ramal, a village southwest of Kirkuk, and demanded the release of Saddam Hussein. Mainly Sunni Arabs, the chiefs said they planned to hold rallies in Sunni cities throughout the country to insist that Saddam be freed and that the charges against him and his co-defendants dropped. "If the demand is not carried out, we will lead a general, sweeping and popular uprising," said Shaikh Wassfy Al Assy, brother of the chief of the 1.5 million strong Obaidi tribe.
COMMENT: This is a very real and serious threat for two reasons. Firstly, the likelihood of Saddam being released is very small. Secondly, there are over 150 tribes in Iraq and some of them are very large and wield a lot of power. Many Iraqis are still loyal to their tribes first and foremost. Many of the Sunni branches of tribes were used by Saddam in the military and special security organisations and were pro-regime and are still loyal to him. Some of the tribes have armed 'wings' who could easily cause extensive damage. The tribes are one of the keys to Iraq's future and security. It took a while to get the tribal leaders to come to the drawing board but they finally agreed to meetings earlier this year when they committed numbers of their young men to join government security forces in their areas. That will fall apart if the tribes carry out their threat, leaving the Iraqi security forces even more depleted. COMMENT ENDS.
