IRAQ MUST QUICKLY PICK NEW LEADER TO RESTORE TRUST, WARNS UN ENVOY
▶ Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert says ‘band-aid’ answers will not pacify protesters, especially after killings
Iraq must urgently pick a new prime minister, announce concrete measures to build political trust and end the deadly response of security forces to street protests, the United Nations’ special envoy said yesterday.
Speaking via video link from Baghdad, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the UN Security Council that “band-aid” responses would not placate a population that was angered by corruption, partisan interests and foreign interference.
Two months of demonstrations met by live fire from the authorities have resulted in more than 400 people killed and 19,000 wounded, she said, criticising security personnel for using excessive force from the beginning, which caused the situation to “spin out of control”.
“Political leaders do not have the luxury of time, and must rise to the moment,” she said of the choices facing the Iraqi government.
So far, however, reform packages addressing housing, unemployment, finance and education have been perceived as “unrealistic, or too little, too late”, as has the government’s investigation into the suppression of public dissent.
“Who is smashing media outlets,” Ms Hennis-Plasschaert asked. “Gunning down peaceful protesters? Abducting civil activists? Who are these masked men, unidentified snipers, unknown armed actors?”
“The shutdown of media outlets, internet and social media adds to the perception that the authorities have something to hide,” she said, noting that corruption had to be tackled.
“We have heard plenty of words and gestures, but seen fewer concrete outcomes. The political class will need to lead by example, for instance by publicly disclosing their assets and by abolishing their socalled ‘economic offices’.”
After a new surge in violence last week, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi formally resigned and talks to find a replacement have intensified this week in Baghdad.
Foreign interference, particularly from Shiite militias aligned with Iran, has been blamed for the targeting of civilians protesting against the Iraqi government. Despite international calls for such meddling to end, there seems no prospect that it will. Among those attending the negotiations in the Iraqi capital are two key allies of Iraq’s main Shiite parties: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Maj Gen Qassem Suleimani and Lebanese power-broker Mohammad Kawtharany, a high-ranking political source told the AFP news agency.
“Suleimani is in Baghdad to push for a particular candidate to succeed Abdul Mahdi,” the source said.
Kawtharany, who is Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s pointman on Iraq, “is also playing a large role in persuading Shiite and Sunni political forces on this”, the source said.
Despite the two countries fighting a war between 1980 and 1988, Iran’s influence in Iraq has grown since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the US-led invasion of 2003.
Tehran exerts much more influence in Baghdad than the US, a matter exacerbated by the withdrawal of much of US diplomatic staff from its embassy in the Iraqi capital over recent months.
Iraq’s top diplomat to the UN, Ambassador Mohamed Hussein El Uloom, blamed “illegal groups” for infiltrating the protests, saying they had attacked “security forces and protesters alike”.
“The security forces are not engaging with the protesters or attacking them,” he said, denying that the former were responsible for the bloodshed and reiterating that the government had ordered an investigation.
Iraq’s political parties are said to be considering a sixmonth transitional Cabinet to oversee electoral reform before an early parliamentary vote. But protests have continued in Baghdad and across the south.
In Najaf, 35 protesters were wounded when armed guards in civilian clothes fired shotguns and tear gas on crowds near the tomb of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al Hakim, a cleric who founded a major Shiite political party.
The shrine city of Najaf has been shaken by violence since protesters set fire to the Iranian consulate there last Wednesday, accusing Tehran of propping up the government.
In New York, Ambassador Kel
ly Craft, the top US diplomat to the UN, said she was deeply alarmed by the response taken by the Iraqi security forces and non-state actors against civilians.
“Iraq’s neighbours must not meddle in its affairs,” Ms Craft said, noting that Iraqis had registered their frustration at Iranian interference.
The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Karen Pierce, called for “credible investigations” into the recent violence.
Tribal dignitaries have tried to mediate, calling on cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and his Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigades) to intervene, Mr Sadr’s office said. He has yet to respond.
On Monday night, riot police fired live rounds and tear gas at protesters in Karbala, another religious city south of the capital, while federal police have dispatched reinforcements to the flashpoint city of Nasiriyah, where the most deaths have been in recent days, and to the port city of Basra.