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Iraq – Zubayr – Sunnis – Shi’A – Insurgents

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Iraq – Zubayr – Sunnis – Shi’A – Insurgents Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IRQ17249 Country: Iraq Date: 11 April 2005 Keywords: Iraq – Zubayr – Sunnis – Shi’a – Insurgents This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Are there significant numbers of Sunnis in or around Zubayr? 2. Have there been recent instances of attacks on Shi’a clerics or Shi’as generally in or around Zubayr, or of other insurgent activity attributed to radical Sunnis? A number of news articles referred to in this response are sourced from The Islam Memo, translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr of the Free Arab Voice and posted on the Independent Media Center and Information from Occupied Iraq website. What follows is information on The Islam Memo, The Free Arab Voice, the Independent Media Center and Information from Iraq website. The Islam Memo http://www.islammemo.cc/ (in Arabic) According to the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute, The Islam Memo “provides news related to Jihad and mujahideen throughout the world” (http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications10304&Category=publications&Subc ategory=0 ). The Free Arab Voice http://www.freearabvoice.org/ The Free Arab Voice is an independent political newsletter that comes out only in cyberspace once every few weeks. The Free Arab Voice is critical, analytical, unconventional, and is run completely by volunteers. The articles and comments featured in the Free Arab Voice tackle mainly Arab, Islamic, and Palestinian issues back home and in North America ranging from the ADC’s 14th Convention to the siege on several Arab states and the Palestinian people. For more information http://www.freearabvoice.org/whoisfav.htm The Independent Media Center http://www.indymedia.org/en/ The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media’s distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity. The Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.org), was established by various independent and alternative media organizations and activists in 1999 for the purpose of providing grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle. The center acted as a clearinghouse of information for journalists, and provided up-to-the- minute reports, photos, audio and video footage through its website. Using the collected footage, the Seattle Independent Media Center (seattle.indymedia.org) produced a series of five documentaries, uplinked every day to satellite and distributed throughout the United States to public access stations. For more information http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.shtml and http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/FrequentlyAskedQuestionEn Information from Occupied Iraq website (http://www.uruknet.info/ ) No background information is provided. We always mention the author and link the original site and page of every article. RESPONSE 1. Are there significant numbers of Sunnis in or around Zubayr? A number of news articles from a range of sources suggest that Zubayr has a significant Sunni population however the articles differ as to the actual number of Sunnis. • “In Zubayr, where Sunnis make up about a third of the people” (‘Worrying trends – Iraq’s south’ 2005, The Economist, 5 February – Attachment 1); • “Zubayr has a 35% Sunni population” (Stringer, David 2005, ‘Decoy Plan for Iraq Elections’, The Scotsman, 26 January http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4051297 – Accessed 4 April 2005 – Attachment 2); • “But unlike other towns in the south, it also has a significant Sunni minority, about 35 per cent of the population” (McDonough, Challiss 2005, ‘Officials Fear Calm in Southern Iraq Could be Short-Lived’, Axcess News, source: Voice of America, 27 January http://www.axcessnews.com/worldnews_012705.shtml – 4 April 2005 – Attachment 3); • “The town has a Shia-Sunni ratio of 65 to 35 per cent” (Ahmed, Rashmee Z. 2005, ‘Iraq votes: Will trial turn to tribulation tomorrow?”, The Times of India, 28 January http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1004432,prtpage-1.cms – Accessed 5 April 2005 – Attachment 4). • “35% of the population were Sunni” (Ahmed, Tanveer 2005, ‘Iraq – A new dawn?’, BBC News, 1 February http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2005/02/01/tanveer_iraq_diary_p art2_feature.shtml – Accessed 4 April 2005 – Attachment 5); • “[R]oughly two-thirds of the town’s population is Sunni” (‘Iraqi Election Officials Prepare for Worst, Hope for Better’ 2005, PolitInfo.com website, 27 January http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_01_27_3653.html – Accessed 4 April 2005 – Attachment 6); • “Al-Zubayr area, where there is a Sunni majority” (UNHCR 2003, ‘Shi’i fighters said killed ten Sunni Islamists in Basra’, Chronology of Events in Iraq, October 2003, source: Al-Zaman, 1 October – Attachment 7); • “Sunni town of Al Zubayr” (Roberts, Alfred 2004, ‘Myth and reality about the level of support in Iraq for the former Iraqi regime’, Al-Jazeerah, 20 May http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/May/20%20o/M yth%20and%20reality%20about%20the%20level%20of%20support%20in%20Iraq% 20for%20the%20former%20Iraqi%20regime%20By%20Alfred%20Roberts.htm – Accessed 7 April 2005 – Attachment 8); and • “[M]ainly Sunni town of Al-Zubayr” (‘Post election Iraq under the microscope’ 2005, The Daily Star, 7 February http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=15&article_id=12433 – Accessed 4 April 2005 – Attachment 9). 2. Have there been recent instances of attacks on Shi’a clerics or Shi’as generally in or around Zubayr, or of other insurgent activity attributed to radical Sunnis? No information on recent attacks attributed to radical Sunnis on Shi’a clerics or Shi’as in Zubayr or Basra was found amongst the sources consulted. The following news articles document insurgent activity in Zubayr and Basra. Some of the attacks are attributed to radical Sunni groups, others are attributed to “resistance fighters” and others are unattributed. The articles cover the time period November 2004 to March 2005. According to a correspondent from Mafkarat al-Islam and posted on the Jihad Unspun website the Iraqi resistance in the South of Iraq “is made up on the basis of the cooperation of the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia loyal to Shi’i religious leader Muqtada as-Sadr and the predominantly Sunni al-Faruq Brigades”(Nasr, Muhammad Abu 2004, ‘At Least Six British Troops Killed in Basra’, Iraqi Resistance Report for August 19 – August 22, 2004, Jihad Unspun website, 26 August http://www.jihadunspun.com/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=99426&list=/newsarc hive/index.php& – Accessed 8 April 2005 – Attachment 10). No information was found amongst the sources consulted to indicate whether the Squadrons of the Merciful God or the al-Hasan al-Basri Brigades are Sunni or Shia militias. Zubayr An article sourced from The Islam Memo, translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr of the Free Arab Voice and posted on the Information from Occupied Iraq website reports that on 31 March 2005 an Iraqi sharp shooter killed a British soldier in Zubayr. (Please note that all articles from The Islam Memo are translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr of the Free Arab Voice.) An Iraqi sharp shooter shot and killed a British occupation soldier in the az-Zubayr area of the southern Iraqi city of al-Basrah at about 10am Thursday morning. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in the city reported a puppet policeman as saying that the soldier had been standing by a bakery in the al-‘Askari neighborhood when the Iraqi Resistance sharp shooter opened fire, apparently from the roof of the bakery opposite where he was standing. The soldier was struck in the head and killed. After the attack British occupation troops surrounded the area and launched a wave of searches that yielded them nothing (‘Resistance sharp shooter kills British soldier in al-Basrah Thursday morning’ 2005, Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 31 March 2005, Information from Occupied Iraq website, source: Islam Memo, 1 April http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10816 – Accessed 5 April 2005 – Attachment 11). An article sourced from The Islam Memo and posted on the Information from Occupied Iraq website reports that on 25 March 2005 an “Iraqi resistance bomb” exploded in Zubayr killing three British troops and one Iraqi soldier and wounding two British troops. An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a joint British and Iraqi puppet force patrol in the center of the southern Iraqi city of al-Basrah at 8am local time Friday morning. Residents of the ar-Rashidiyah neighborhood of the az-Zubayr district told Mafkarat al-Islam that the bomb went off on the main street in their area just as the joint patrol was passing. The blast destroyed a British armored vehicle and killed three British troops and wounded two more. One Iraqi puppet soldier was wounded and later died. After the blast, British forces together with Iraqi stooges launched a wave of arrests targeted exclusively on the local Sunni citizens. They stormed into several nearby houses and arrested about 12 youths on charges of helping the Resistance plan attacks against the British occupation forces (‘Resistance bomb kills three British troops in al-Basrah Friday morning’ 2005, Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 25 March 2005, Information from Occupied Iraq website, source: Islam Memo, 25 March http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10679&s2=27 – Accessed 6 April 2005 – Attachment 12). An article sourced from The Islam Memo and posted on the Information from Occupied Iraq website reports that on 14 March 2005 more than 10 resistance fighters from the Squadrons of the Merciful God attacked a British convoy in Zubayr killing six and wounding two British intelligence officers.
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