Sunnis in Iraq Protest U.S. Occupation, seek Muslim unity

Sunnis in Iraq Protest U.S. Occupation
Cleric Calls for Muslim Unity; Hussein Aide Caught
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran - Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 19, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD, April 18 -- Thousands of Sunni Muslims, uneasy at the prospect of losing their position in Iraqi society to the Shiite majority, staged their first show of force today since the fall of President Saddam Hussein's government, marching through the streets of Baghdad to protest the U.S. military occupation and to demand a Muslim state without distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

The impassioned demonstration would have been unthinkable under Hussein, who banned unsanctioned rallies. In any case, it would have been unnecessary; Hussein accorded disproportionate influence to his fellow Sunnis, who traditionally have held the upper hand in Iraq's official, economic and social life. In a new, post-Hussein Iraq, the marchers seemed to say, such cleavages should be set aside in favor of a nation unified around shared Islamic faith.

"No Sunni. No Shiite. Only One Islamic Nation," proclaimed one painted-cloth banner. "Iraq must be ruled by its people," read another.

In the nine days since U.S. tanks took control of Baghdad, newly emboldened Shiites have engaged in public acts of religious expression that long were banned by Hussein out of a desire to exert social control and promote the secular philosophy of his Baath Party. The behavior of Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, has provoked quiet but intense concern among Sunnis and the even smaller Christian minority, who both fear they will be marginalized in a new government if it reflects the country's demographics.

The protesters, who were led by a well-known Sunni scholar, began their march at one of Baghdad's largest Sunni mosques after Friday prayers. They called on U.S. troops to leave quickly and for a new government to be based on Islamic laws. Although those demands appeared to reflect growing frustration with the pace of U.S. aid and reconstruction programs in Iraq, they also were overtures to Shiite leaders, who have made similar requests, and an indication of how Islamic politics is starting to fill the political vacuum left by Hussein's downfall.

Among the placards carried by some of the approximately 10,000 marchers were two claiming to represent the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic activist movement in the Arab world. It was the first time the Brotherhood, a Muslim revivalist group that is banned in Egypt and Syria, has appeared on the public stage in Iraq.

Shortly after the protest, Ahmed Chalabi, leader of a U.S.-backed group that opposed Hussein, predicted that an interim Iraqi government will take over most government functions from the U.S. military in "a matter of weeks rather than months." Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, did not specify how the interim government would be selected, but he said he will not be a candidate to lead the country.

Another top aide to Hussein was taken into custody today by U.S. forces, the U.S. Central Command said. Samir Abd Aziz Najim, Hussein's former chief of staff and one of 55 senior Iraqi figures sought by the United States, was handed over to U.S. troops early this morning by Iraqi Kurds near the northern city of Mosul, a Central Command spokesman said in Doha, Qatar.

The fate of the top man on the list -- Hussein himself -- remains a mystery. But an Arab television network aired today what it said was videotaped footage of the former Iraqi leader being greeted by a cheering crowd on a Baghdad street on April 9, two days after he was targeted by a U.S. airstrike and the day his government evaporated from the city. There was no independent confirmation of when the scene was recorded or whether the person depicted was Hussein.

U.S. forces continued to battle lingering pockets of fighters loyal to Hussein. Elements of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division destroyed eight vehicles and captured more than 30 militia members in an attack north of Baghdad on Thursday night, the Central Command said.

Even as new prisoners of war were captured, the Pentagon said U.S. and British forces have released more than 900 Iraqi prisoners who have been classified as noncombatants who did not engage in hostile acts during the war and were not part of a military force. U.S.-British forces now hold about 6,850 prisoners, the Pentagon said.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the foreign ministers of six countries that border Iraq met for their first postwar summit, saying they expect to conclude the meeting by jointly denouncing the prospect of even a short-term U.S. military occupation of Iraq. The ministers also criticized U.S. diplomatic pressure on Syria, which the Bush administration has accused of harboring members of Hussein's government and possessing chemical weapons.

In an opening address to the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Jordan, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud Faisal, said threats against Syria would "lead to a vicious cycle of wars and turmoil."

In Washington, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said experts from his agency have been sent to Iraq to help find antiquities stolen during recent looting of Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities and National Library. Interpol, the international police organization based in Lyon, France, said it also would send a team to Iraq to assist in the investigation.

The chairman of Iraq's state board of antiquities, Jaber Khalil Ibrahim, said curators at the museum still have not taken a full count of the items that were damaged or carted off by looters. U.S. soldiers guarding the compound said a basement vault where many of the most valuable items were moved for safekeeping appeared not to have been breached, but Ibrahim said museum officials were waiting for power to be restored so they can examine the rooms with adequate lighting.

A Marine spokesman said U.S. troops working with Iraqi engineers hope to restart Baghdad's largest power plant on Saturday. Although some diesel-powered generating facilities have been restarted, the vast majority of the city still does not have power.

Today's march occurred in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Adamiya. Drawn by announcements at other mosques, thousands of people converged on the brown brick Abu Hanifa Mosque to listen to a sermon by Ahmed Kubeisi, a prominent Sunni cleric who had been a critic of Hussein. Although the crowd was predominantly Sunni, a few Shiites showed up after being urged to attend in the spirit of religious unity.

Sunnis, who once used to outnumber Shiites, have been the rulers of the general area that is modern-day Iraq from the days of the Abbasid caliphs in the 8th century to the 19th-century monarchs and eventually Hussein. Over the past two decades, Shiites in Iraq, who are typically poorer and have larger families than Sunnis, grew to become the dominant branch of Islam in the country. Sunnis now make up about 20 percent of Iraq's population.

Hussein's Baath Party, which sought to modernize the country, promoted a secular agenda. For that reason and for security concerns, it banned many Shiite religious practices. During an eight-year war with neighboring Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, and particularly after a Shiite rebellion in southern Iraq following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Hussein deemed even the slightest stirrings of Shiite political activity to be a threat and crushed them ruthlessly.

Now, however, with the old system gone and uncharted political territory ahead, Shiites have started to express themselves in ways they could not before, holding large rallies for revered leaders and hoisting trademark green flags. Many Sunnis said those actions are the first step in a power grab that could leave them politically and socially marginalized.

As a consequence, Sunni leaders have been touting the concept of religious harmony -- a subtle message aimed at winning over Shiites.

"We fear that sectarianism will be exploited by our enemies," Kubeisi said in a sermon before the march. "Both Sunnis and Shiites should work for unity. We are all Muslims."

Kubeisi lashed out at both Hussein and President Bush, criticizing the previous government as corrupt and the United States as interested only in Iraq's oil. He argued that U.S. troops should leave quickly and Iraqis should be free to lead themselves.

"You are the masters today," Kubeisi said of the U.S. troops here. "But I warn you against thinking of staying. Get out before we force you out."

"We are the ones who are going to reconstruct our country," he said to loud cheers. "We don't need any interference from America."

After he concluded, thousands of Sunnis took to the streets, clutching Korans and prayer mats and hoisting banners. They shouted that they would fight for Islam and Iraq "with our souls and with our blood" -- a variation of a common paean to Hussein.

"We are very worried about disunity," one middle-aged Sunni man said on the sidelines of the protest. "Sunnis and Shiites must get along and must share power."

For many of the marchers, criticism of the United States came with qualifications. Several said they wished that Hussein's government could have been toppled by Iraqis, but they acknowledged that would have been unlikely. Grudgingly, some admitted they were thankful for the U.S. invasion, but now that Hussein is nowhere to be seen -- at least in person -- they said they want the U.S. troops to leave.

"We thank them, but now we want them to leave," said Rafeh Mohammed, 39, a poet. "We want to run our country."

A spokesman for the Central Command, Army Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, said: "While there will be some that want to see a departure of the coalition, some would like to have that so they can try to return power to the way it was."

Others, he said, may want to demonstrate "just to remind us that this is Iraq for the Iraqi people. And we really don't need a reminder on that. We're quite aware of that and we respect that."

At a news conference inside a private club in one of Baghdad's most affluent neighborhoods, Chalabi said he believed that the United States "does not want to run Iraq."

"That is the policy of the United States, that's what President Bush has said, and I believe him," said Chalabi, a London-based exile whose party has received financial backing from the U.S. government.

He said he did not think the "United Nations is capable in Iraq to play a major role" in the reconstruction and political transition, noting the world body's lack of support for the U.S. invasion to topple Hussein. Chalabi called for an interim governing authority run by Iraqis to be appointed "sooner rather than later."

He said he foresaw a period of reconstruction under a U.S. military administration to last only "a few weeks." After that, he said, "an Iraqi interim authority will be chosen by Iraqis and take over the business of governing."

Although Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress enjoys the support of many officials at the Pentagon and others in the Bush administration, it is not well known in Iraq.

During Hussein's years in power, opposition political activity was banned.