The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 19, 2004, Page A8, Image 8
AROUND THE WORLD
Radical Shiite cleric reportedly accepts peace plan
NAJAF, Iraq — Radical Shiite
j cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a
peace plan Wednesday for Najaf
that would disarm his militiamen
and remove them from a holy
shrine where they are hiding out,
according to a spokesman.
However, Al-Sadr wanted to
negotiate how the deal would be
implemented.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi National
Conference picked 81 members of
a National Council that will act as a
watchdog on the interim Iraqi
government until January elections.
Instead of voting on the 81 as
planned, conference delegates
approved a candidate list after a
competing list was withdrawn.
The cleric’s decision came just
hours after Iraqi Defense Minister
Hazem Shaalan said the government
was prepared to raid the revered
Imam Ali shrine as early as
Wednesday to root out the militants.
The agreement could spell the
end of the two-week resurgence of
violence in this holy city that
enraged many of the country’s
majority Shiites and posed the
greatest test yet for the fledgling
government of interim Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi.
The cease-fire deal was presented
to al-Sadr’s aides in Najaf on
Tuesday by an eight-person
delegation sent by the Iraqi National
Conference, .meeting in Baghdad.
Al-Sadr himself declined to meet
with the mediators. The proposal
demanded the cleric’s militia drop
its arms, withdraw from the shrine
and transform itself into a political
party in exchange for amnesty.
Sheik Hassan al-Athari, an
official at al-Sadr’s office in
Baghdad, said the cleric had agreed
to the plan but wanted the
delegation to return to Najaf to
negotiate how it would be
implemented and to ensure his
militants would not be arrested. He
said al-Sadr had other minor
conditions but did not elaborate.
Al-Sadr has made contradictory
statements in the past, and a
previous cease-fire with his Mahdi
Army militia that ended a spring
uprising two months ago collapsed
into street battles throughout Najaf
on Aug. 5.
Clashes marked by gunfire and
explosions continued in Najaf even
after the agreement was announced
Wednesday. Fighting in Najaf has
killed six people and wounded 23
others since Tuesday morning,
Hussein Hadi of Najaf General
Hospital said Wednesday.
The U.S. military says the
fighting in Najaf has killed
hundreds of militants, though the
militants deny that. Eight U.S.
soldiers and at least 40 Iraqi police
have been killed as well.
The fighting in Najaf has angered
many among the country’s majority
Shiite population and cast a pall
over the conference in Baghdad.
Allawi issued a statement at the
conference accusing the militants of
having mined the area around the
Imam Ali compound.
The conference was extended a
fourth day into Wednesday because
of disagreements over how to elect
a National Council: Smaller groups
had argued they would not have
enough of a voice.
Originally, the gathering of
more than 1,000 religious, political
and civic leaders was to vote on one
slate of candidates, which would
have had to garner 65 percent to
become part of the new council.
Faced with the complaints from
smaller parties, organizers decided
to let several lists compete.
By Wednesday evening,
delegates had gathered to choose
between two candidate lists, but
one was suddenly withdrawn.
Without voting on the remaining
slate, conference organizers
declared it the winner.
The organizers said they had
consulted with their legal advisers
and U.N. representatives before
declaring the winning slate of 81.
The final 19 seats of the 100-member
body will be filled by members of the
former U.S.-appointed Governing
Council who were not included in
the interim government.
Cease-fire halts deadly Afghan fighting
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.
ambassador helped broker a cease
fire Tuesday to halt the latest
bloody infighting in Afghanistan,
persuading a warlord to pull away
from a provincial capital as U.S.
warplanes circled overhead.
The deal stopped fighting that
saw rebels come within 20 miles of
the key western city of Herat, said
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad. He said the death toll
had risen significantly from the 25
killed as of Monday, but would not
give specific figures.
Factional violence has flared
across Afghanistan this year,
undermining Afghan and American
claims of growing security and
stability more than two years after
the fall of the Taliban.
The latest violence could also
deepen ethnic tension ahead of the
Oct. 9 presidential vote and is an
unwelcome distraction for the U.S.
military, which is battling
insurgents.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan called for an urgent increase
in international forces in
Afghanistan Tuesday to address the
deteriorating security situation.
In a report to the Security
Council, Annnan welcomed
NATO’s recent decision to increase
its troop strength to help improve
security. He expressed hope that
the new soldiers will arrive in time
for the election campaign that
starts in early September and
remain beyond April’s
parliamentary elections.
These acts of violence, “carried
out with seeming impunity, have
resulted in the loss of too many
Afghan lives and increasingly, of
those of international assistance
workers,” he said. “They have
hindered the establishment of
sustainable national institutions
and the delivery of economic and
social assistance.”
A Pashtun commander known as
Amanullah, whose militia has been
battering troops loyal to the
governor of western Herat
province since Friday, said on
Tuesday that he had retreated from
positions overlooking Herat city
after the cease-fire deal.
A spokesman for Gov. Ismail
Khan, the region’s dominant
faction leader, said the Afghan
government’s new U.S.-trained
army then inserted a buffer force
north of a contested air base to
keep the sides apart.
“We expect everyone to
cooperate for the sake of Afghanistan
and for their own future,” Khalilzad
told reporters after a round of
telephone diplomacy to help secure
the cease-fire.
Earlier Tuesday, Amanullah’s
ethnic Pashtun fighters pushed to
within 20 miles of the provincial
capital, raising the specter of urban
warfare.
Amanullah swears allegiance to
the central government and has
praised President Hamid Karzai.
But Karzai, a fellow Pashtun who
has also clashed repeatedly with
Khan, condemned his action, and
the U.S. ambassador warned
against any further advance.
“I’ve made it clear our
expectations of people,” Khalilzad
said when asked if he had
threatened to use force. “1 would
like to leave it at that.”
Residents and officials in Herat
said U.S. warplanes flew over the
shifting front lines on Tuesday.
Militia commanders on both
sides claimed that bombs were
dropped — always on their
opponents. U.S. military officials in
Kabul didn’t respond to requests
for comment.
Battles have raged in several
districts of Herat province since
Friday between forces loyal to
Khan, a powerful Tajik, and several
Pashtun rivals.
The fighting continued even as
hundreds of national army soldiers
and their U.S. trainers set up camp
at Shindand air base in the south of
the province.
Presidential spokesman Jawed
Ludin said the force was there to
keep order and that the
government was still investigating.
But he suggested the government
was siding against Amanullah.
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