Eric Witte MRG 18899:MRG 18899 2/3/07 10:39 Page 105
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MRG_18899:MRG_18899 2/3/07 10:39 Page 103 Middle East Eric Witte MRG_18899:MRG_18899 2/3/07 10:39 Page 105 The year 2006 was another year of conflict in the Muslims make up about 96 per cent of the Iraqi Middle East, marked by a worsening of sectarian and population. This overwhelming majority is mainly ethnic strife in Iraq; an intensive, month-long war divided into a large Shia Arab majority, a Sunni between Israel and Hezbollah that saw widespread Arab minority estimated at around 20 per cent, and destruction in Lebanon; and continuation of the around 6 million ethnic Kurds, who are mostly Israeli–Palestinian conflict. All of this violence had Sunni. An estimated 10 per cent of the population dire consequences for minority rights. is not Shia Arab, Sunni Arab or Sunni Kurd, and The Iraq Study Group commissioned by the US includes ethnic Shabaks, Turkomans and Faili (Shia) Congress warned in December 2006 of a ‘broader Kurds, as well as Christians, Mandean-Sabeans, regional war’ fuelled by Sunni–Shia violence Yezidis and Baha’is. spilling out of Iraq. Indeed, Iran, Lebanon and The Baathist regime of former dictator Saddam Syria all saw a worsening of sectarian relations. Hussein was firmly based in the favoured Sunni Even in usually calm Bahrain, sectarian friction Arab minority and became notorious for the between the ruling Sunni minority and the 60 per repression and even slaughter of Shia, Kurds and cent majority Shia population rose ahead of many of Iraq’s smaller minorities. Following the November parliamentary elections, following the ouster of Saddam in 2003, the American-led leaking of a government report in September that occupying force installed a transitional government described the proposals of a government minister using ethnic and sectarian quotas that left Sunni to weaken the Shia, including through election Arabs feeling under-represented. Elections in manipulation. January 2005, boycotted by Sunni Arabs, led to The Iraq war also sharpened the plight of establishment of a government dominated by Shia Palestinian refugees trying to escape from Iraq and Kurds. This government oversaw the drafting without travel documents. As violence in Iraq and ratification of a new constitution in October escalated in 2006, Syria and Jordan both 2005 that left Sunni Arabs feeling marginalized. demonstrated reluctance to admit Palestinians Other minorities were also largely excluded from the camped at their borders. Minority women in Iraq process, as Western powers concentrated on forging faced the triple threat of targeting on the basis of consensus among the three main ethnic/sectarian religion, ethnicity and gender. groups, to which all but five of the 71 constitutional framers belonged. Iraq The Shia Arab majority appeared content to Violence in Iraq continues to worsen, with a study await the post-Saddam transition that would cede in the Lancet finding that – as of September 2006 – them control of the country, and refrained from the Iraqi death toll attributable to conflict since the large-scale retaliation against Sunni Arab attacks March 2003 American-led invasion had risen to until coming to power in the January 2005 over 650,000. With mounting chaos, the United elections. But, following those elections, Shia Nations (UN) estimated that, by October 2006, militants associated with the Iranian-backed over 1.6 million Iraqis had fled the country and Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq 100,000 more each month were abandoning their (SCIRI) and its Badr Organization, played a major burning homeland. Militants sought to extend their role in the Interior Ministry and committed control over land, principally by killing and numerous indiscriminate attacks on Sunni civilians. expelling minority populations. Religious and ethnic In November 2005, US forces discovered an minorities throughout Iraq became even more underground detention and torture facility run by imperilled with acceleration of the cycle of killings the Interior Ministry in Baghdad. and retribution, especially in sectarian violence Amidst this bloodshed, sectarian and ethnic between Shia and Sunni Arabs. Minority women division marked the campaign ahead of another faced added danger of violence from Islamic round of elections in December 2005. The extremists, and even their own families, through so- government arising from that vote is divided among called ‘honour killings’ following sexual violence. the three main factions: President Jalal Talabani is Some have stopped attending university in order to Kurdish, Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi is Sunni avoid coercion. Arab, and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is Middle East State of the World’s 105 Minorities 2007 MRG_18899:MRG_18899 2/3/07 10:39 Page 106 Shia Arab; yet this power-sharing has not hindered a new assault threatened to intensify the killing Iraq’s slide into sectarian civil war and dark days for further, as a series of car bombs, mortar attacks and its minorities. rockets killed over 200 civilians in Sadr City, the Rival political parties within government openly Shia Arab slum of Baghdad and stronghold of support different militias who patrol various parts of leading Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army the country in the name of community protection, militia. In the aftermath, Shia Arab militants but are also clearly working to extend their areas of launched retaliatory attacks on Sunni civilians and control. These same militias detain, torture and their holy sites. conduct ‘trials’ of their victims, and summarily In September 2006 the International execute them with impunity. For example, Prime Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Minister Maliki depends on a faction allied with patterns of displacement that reflected the perceived radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Many Sunni threat to Shia and Sunni Arabs living as sectarian Arab victims of militia assaults report that minorities. Shia Arabs were fleeing the Sunni Arab- perpetrators are in police or sometimes army dominated central Iraqi governates of Anbar and uniforms, use police vehicles and act without Salah al Din, as well as the mixed governate of interference from local police. Sunni Arab militants Baghdad for the majority Shia Arab southern have targeted police stations and police recruits in governates, while Sunni Arabs were moving from retaliation for Shia Arab militia attacks, and to those southern governates into the governates of discourage cooperation with the government and Baghdad, Diyala and Anbar. IOM also reported international troops. high rates of movement by Shia and Sunni Arabs It is unclear to what extent Sunni Arab attacks are into segregated towns and neighbourhoods within the work of domestic Baathist forces, or that of the mixed governates of Baghdad and Diyala. foreign insurgents, but it is increasingly clear that The overwhelming reality of daily sectarian Iraqi Sunnis are engaging in sectarian violence. Shia violence has left Iraq’s smaller minorities particularly militias have been unwilling to disarm because they vulnerable. A report for Minority Rights Group say their community would then be endangered by International (MRG), published in early 2007, the Sunni insurgency, but these in turn encourage warned that the impact of the conflict on some Sunni Arab militancy. Iraqis of many stripes feel minority groups has been so acute that they are in increasingly reliant on sectarian and ethnic militias danger of being driven out entirely from a territory because the American-led international and Iraqi they have called home for hundreds – in some cases, government forces have proved incapable of thousands – of years. They are targeted on sectarian establishing security. and/or ethnic grounds, and face added danger from The 22 February 2006 bombing of a Shia shrine the perception that they cooperate with American- set off a particularly fierce round of sectarian led forces. violence, the worst of which came in such mixed Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish minority is mostly Sunni Sunni–Shia Arab areas of the country as Baghdad, and concentrated in the north. Iraqi Kurds suffered Tal Afar and Diyala. The violence escalated greatly under Saddam’s rule, but gained wide throughout the year. Iraqi government figures placed autonomy and relative prosperity during the the number of civilian dead for September and sanctions regime, and with the Western air October 2006 at 7,054, with 5,000 of these killings protection from Saddam’s forces that preceded the in Baghdad. Most victims had been tortured. In one 2003 invasion. Kurds in Iraq strive for greater October incident, following the abduction and autonomy and the dream of an independent decapitation of 17 Shia civilians in the mixed Kurdistan, which is anathema to Iran, Syria and Sunni–Shia Arab town of Balad, up to 90 Sunni Turkey, all of which have neighbouring Kurdish civilians suffered reprisal killings and the UN minorities who, they fear, would seek to join such Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) reported that a new state. In July 2006, the International Crisis most remaining Sunnis had fled the town. By Group warned of a brewing battle for oil-rich November 2006, the UN estimated that 425,000 Kirkuk in the north, which lies beyond the Erbil- Iraqis had been displaced in sectarian violence since based Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) the February Samarra bombings. On 23 November, reach, but within its desire. Kurds used their 106 Middle East State of the World’s Minorities 2007 MRG_18899:MRG_18899 2/3/07 10:39 Page 107 position in the government elected in January They face persecution by religious extremists as 2005 to secure a process that would reverse the ‘devil worshippers’. A Yezidi council member for the Saddam-era process of Arabization in Kirkuk, Nineveh Plains was assassinated in April 2006, one moving toward its eventual formal inclusion in the of 11 Yezidis reported murdered between September Kurdish region by referendum in late 2007. Turkey 2005 and September 2006.