8 July 30, 2017 News & Analysis Iraq Mosul yet to begin a long process of recovery

Mamoon Alabbasi There are also concerns that abus- es may have been carried out by Ira- qi forces against people suspected London to be linked to ISIS. The Iraqi gov- ernment promised to investigate raq’s capture of Mosul from Is- such abuse allegations, describing lamic State (ISIS) control ended them as “individual acts,” but rights a 3-year period of torment for observers said they were not as- the city’s residents but the pro- sured. cess of recovery has yet to start. IMany residents are looking for Calming Sunni-Shia loved ones, suspected to be bur- tensions is not the ied under rubble that has yet to be cleared. Workers at morgues, whose only challenge that refrigerated sections are filled with Iraq faces amid bodies, struggle to identify and sharpening divisions bury the dead. among the country’s An estimated 90% of western Mo- politicians. sul’s infrastructure was destroyed during the campaign to dislodge ISIS. Only one bridge remains to al- “Despite repeated promises to low people to travel between west- investigate wrongdoing by security ern Mosul and the better-off eastern forces, Prime Minister Haider al- side. Approximately 70% of private Abadi has yet to demonstrate that property in the western side was re- Iraqi authorities have held a single portedly destroyed. soldier accountable for murdering, Iraqi officials have yet to clear the torturing, and abusing Iraqis in this numerous booby traps left by ISIS conflict,” read a statement by Hu- in western Mosul’s houses, schools man Rights Watch (HRW). and mosques. Many residents are Iraqi officers, speaking on condi- not holding their breath as normal- tion of anonymity to the Associated cy has failed to return to other areas Press (AP), acknowledged that their of Iraq that were cleared of ISIS and troops killed unarmed ISIS suspects the militants’ hidden bombs. in acts of revenge but argued that Among the most pressing needs international law should not be of Mosul’s residents are shelter, applied in the war against the mili- food and medical attention. There tants. The search goes on. Iraqi civil defence workers search for the bodies of victims in the rubble of is a need to resume vital services Indeed, many suspected mili- buildings in western Mosul’s Zanjili district, on July 26. (AFP) and begin the costly process of re- tants have been detained and constructing the city. sometimes killed without being videos purporting to show abuses Ammar al-Hakim, the leader of The move is viewed as an at- convicted of terrorism in Iraqi committed by both ISIS and rogue the Supreme Council for the Is- tempt by Hakim to attract votes for An estimated 90% of courts. Some Iraqis justified the Iraqi forces but, to keep the peace, lamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), his new party in April’s parliamen- western Mosul’s extrajudicial killings by arguing the Shia-dominated government announced he was stepping down tary elections because many Iraqis that Iraqi courts were corrupt and would be pressed to show that it from his leadership role in the ma- have expressed discontent with the infrastructure was that suspects could be freed by treats all citizens equally. jor Shia political party, following a SCIRI’s pro-Iran stances. destroyed during the paying bribes. “Such footage, which seemingly long-standing dispute with some Hakim, who enjoys good ties campaign to dislodge There are fears, however, that hypocritically showcases Iraqi sol- of its members. Three senior mem- with Kurdish politicians, also ex- ISIS. punishing suspects who have not diers using this battle to not only bers of SCIRI have left the party pressed strong opposition to the been convicted of wrongdoing continue to abuse the civilian over the past year following report- referendum on the future of Iraq’s could further incite sectarian strife, population but also stoop to ISIS’s ed disagreements with Hakim on semi-autonomous Kurdistan re- Dealing with the immense level of which spiked in the country follow- level when doing so, only further the direction of the party. gion. An independence referendum psychological trauma inflicted upon ing the 2003 US-led invasion. inflames the tensions ISIS thrives Hakim said he will form a new is to be called by Kurdish authori- citizens is also important but has yet If such abuses continue, “all in,” wrote Wille in an opinion piece party, called the National Wisdom ties on September 25. The move has to be taken into consideration. The you’re going to see is (that) young in the Huffington Post. Movement, which he said would been rejected by the whole region, brutal rule of ISIS is responsible for Sunni Arab men are going to want Calming Sunni-Shia tensions, be more inclusive of Iraq’s other except for Israel, he said. much of the trauma but the military to join whatever the next extremist however, is not the only chal- components. “We need a new campaign to oust the militants also group looks like,” Belkis Wille, Iraq lenge Iraq faces amid sharpen- movement to present national pro- Mamoon Alabbasi is an Arab resulted in many civilian casualties researcher with HRW, told the AP. ing divisions among the country’s jects,” Hakim said in a televised Weekly contributing editor in and considerable mental agony. Social media are awash with politicians. statement. London. Ammar al-Hakim’s attempt at rebranding not totally convincing

Viewpoint eteran Iraqi Shia the 46-year-old politician are try- president of the post-Saddam ates of his father and uncle, replac- leader Ammar ing to portray his departure from US-appointed Governing Council. Hakim ing them with a younger generation al-Hakim, a long-time the council and establishment of During his tenure, SCIRI controlled who owed him direct allegiance. protégé of Iran, has the Wisdom Party as something the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, setting claims that Three of them decided to com- stepped down from of a soft defection from Iran. This up death squads that roamed the the Wisdom plain, travelling to Tehran to take the hereditary is a line that even the Saudi daily streets of Baghdad, spreading terror Movement up the matter with Iranian Supreme Vleadership of the Supreme Council al-Hayat is buying, claiming that among Sunnis and rival Iraqi Shias. Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq Hakim’s associates are rebrand- John Pace, then the UN human is not an They were former MP Jalal al-Din (SCIRI), setting up a new party, the ing him within the Arab world as a rights chief, said hundreds of Iraqis all-Shia al-Saghir, ex-Immigration Minister National Wisdom Movement, that moderate cleric who is becoming died under torture in Abdul-Aziz’s Mohammad Jassem Khodayyir and Sami party, revolves around his personality acceptable within the Sunni world, dungeons or were executed by Iraqi welcoming Bayan Jabr, the famed interior min- Moubayed cult. hinting that he has burned his police at the orders of the Hakim ister accused of sectarian killings in The new party seems to distance bridges with Tehran. family. membership 2005-06. itself — on paper at least — from Anybody familiar with Hakim’s Ammar al-Hakim grew up with from Iraqi Weeks later, Hakim walked out everything Hakim stood for since history takes that argument with a that family baggage and tried hard Sunnis, on the entire party, setting up the the start of his political career after pinch of salt. Born in Najaf, widely to measure up to his ancestors. He Wisdom Movement, which many the downfall of Saddam Hussein considered the holiest city in Shia was raised in Tehran and speaks Christians say is a clear break with his Iranian in 2003. It shuns the “militarisa- Islam, he is a member of the third flawless Persian, having studied at and ethnic past, aimed at rebranding himself tion of Iraqi society” although for generation of the powerful Hakim private Iranian schools and gradu- Kurds. as an independent pan-Iraqi leader. the past 14 years, Hakim’s party- family, which claims its lineage to ated from the Islamic Arab Univer- Others argue that the move is affiliated militia, the Badr Brigade, the Prophet Mohammad. sity in Qom, where he went on to merely a stunt by Hakim in full was a prime pillar of militia rule and His grandfather Grand Ayatollah teach Arabic, logic, philosophy and coordination with the mullahs sectarian conflict in Iraq. Muhsin al-Hakim was a renowned Islamic jurisprudence for many of Tehran, aimed at giving him a His new party aims at making Iraq scholar and leading authority in the years. facelift ahead of the elections next “a bridge of understanding rather Shia community from 1961 until He was never trained as a cleric April. than a battlefield for conflict,” his death in 1970. Six of his sons but put on Islamic garb when he Hakim went too far in cuddling although Hakim’s men famously were killed at the orders of Saddam. assumed leadership of his family in up with the Iranians, winning many dragged Iraq into sectarian war- One of them, Mohammad Baqir 2009, running by the honorific Shia allies among more mainstream Shia fare, striking at other Shia parties al-Hakim, fled to Iran in 1980, one title of “Sayyed.” He was never a leaders such as Muqtada al-Sadr, and traditional enemies in the year after the Iranian Revolution. marja (or source) as his grandfather a traditional enemy of the Hakim Sunni community, punishing them With Iranian funds and manpower, had been, nor an ayatollah — mean- family, and among Muslim Sunnis, collectively for having produced he helped found SCIRI to fight the ing he never had the authority to who never forgave him or his men Saddam. Finally, Hakim claims that Iraqi Army during the 1980-88 issue religious decrees or speak on for taking up arms against Iraqi the Wisdom Movement is not an all- Iran-Iraq War. It openly called for matters of sharia. soldiers during the Iran-Iraq War. Shia party, welcoming membership the overthrow of Saddam and for Hakim commands a parliamen- Many viewed him as more Iranian from Iraqi Sunnis, Christians and installing a Shia theocracy in Bagh- tary bloc, although he is not a than Iraqi and constantly wrote him ethnic Kurds. dad, a dream that became possible member of parliament, and several off as a stooge of Khamenei, some- Interestingly, sources close to with the 2003 US invasion. important seats in the cabinet of thing that ruined Hakim domesti- Muhammad Baqir was assas- Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi cally and that he has systematically sinated in Najaf the same year and such as the ministries of interior, oil been trying to change to look and Some argue that the move is leadership went to Ammar’s father, and human rights. The bloc had the sound more Iraqi. merely a stunt by Hakim in full Abdul-Aziz, who followed the same majority of MPs until 2010. line until 2009, when he died from Over the past eight years, Hakim Sami Moubayed is a Syrian coordination with the mullahs of lung cancer at a Tehran hospital. has steadily tried to retire ranking historian and author of “Under the Tehran. Abdul-Aziz briefly served as Shia figures in SCIRI, namely associ- Black Flag” (IB Tauris, 2015).