Friday, March 23, 2007
Political sectarian factions pressurise defense minister
Politics
The Ministry of Defense is under immense pressure from sectarian factions who want to have a bigger say in its recruiting and operating policies. Defense Minister Abdulqader Jassem said the factions would like to build the ministry on sectarian lines that have divided the Iraqi society. “I am under huge pressure from the main political blocs to revise the ministry’s structure on sectarian lines,” Jassem said. But he said he would resist any attempt to build the army in the light of the country’s sectarian divisions.
According to the sectarian allocations of power introduced shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the minister of defense has to be a Sunni Arab Muslim while the minister of interior should be a Shiite Arab Muslim. “I am an independent personality and will not receive orders from (political) parties,” he said. It is not clear how Jassem, a civilian, will eventually manage to keep his ministry ‘independent’ has he claims.
The minister did not deny that sectarian and ethnic affiliations were a real problem the new armed suffered from. He said the ministry’s various army formations were not functioning in a transparent manner and salaries were being paid to soldiers and officers who were not actually in service. He said corruption was rife in his ministry and was trying hard to combat “this phenomenon”.
According to the sectarian allocations of power introduced shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the minister of defense has to be a Sunni Arab Muslim while the minister of interior should be a Shiite Arab Muslim. “I am an independent personality and will not receive orders from (political) parties,” he said. It is not clear how Jassem, a civilian, will eventually manage to keep his ministry ‘independent’ has he claims.
The minister did not deny that sectarian and ethnic affiliations were a real problem the new armed suffered from. He said the ministry’s various army formations were not functioning in a transparent manner and salaries were being paid to soldiers and officers who were not actually in service. He said corruption was rife in his ministry and was trying hard to combat “this phenomenon”.
COMMENT: Abdulqader Jassem was born in Ramadi and is a Sunni Arab former general in the army of Saddam Hussein. In 2003, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations room and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was commander of the infantry commando units. He is not affiliated to any political party but his appointment was strongly backed by the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front.COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Abdulqader Jassem, Ministry of Defense, sectarianism
