.Iraq VP warns against sidelining Sunni patrols
DOKAN RESORT, Iraq, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Iraq's Sunni Arab vice-president warned the Shi'ite-led government on Monday it risked reversing recent security gains unless it integrated mainly Sunni neighbourhood patrols into the security forces.
"The state and official forces must welcome them," Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi told a news conference in Dokan tourist resort north of the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is wary of the patrols, despite the U.S. military crediting them with helping to reduce sectarian violence. It is uneasy about allowing men it once regarded as enemies to organise into armed groups.
Many of the volunteers are former insurgents who previously fought U.S. and Iraqi forces. Most are paid about $10 a day by the U.S. military and are mainly employed to man checkpoints.
"Iraq is now at a crossroads, we either back them or we set back the successful experiment," Hashemi said. "If there was a setback, God forbid, then I believe there will be a big decline in the improved security that Iraq has seen."
Sunni Arabs formed the backbone of the insurgency against U.S. forces and the Shi'ite-led government and have long complained about being marginalised following the rise to political power of Iraq's majority Shi'ites after Saddam Hussein was ousted.
But many Sunni Arab tribes, and former insurgents, have since joined forces with the U.S. military to fight Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. Overall violence in Iraq has dropped by 60 percent since June, according to U.S. military figures.
The government has said it plans to integrate about 20 percent of the estimated 71,000 neighbourhood patrol members into its security forces. Others would be offered vocational training for civilian jobs.
"The topic of debate should not be whether to take in 20 percent or 30 percent. These are people who have presented themselves as targets to fight terrorism voluntarily," Hashemi said.
Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite politician, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, called last week for tighter controls on the volunteer force and for a better sectarian mix in the mainly Sunni units.
Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim warned a day later that the government would not tolerate a "third force", saying only policemen and soldiers should carry arms.
Hashemi was in Dokan to sign a memorandum of understanding between his Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab party in parliament, and the two main Kurdish parties led by Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, and Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Talabani told the news conference that the agreement was aimed at forming a "real" national unity government, but he gave no details. Sunni Arabs pulled out of Maliki's government earlier this year, accusing him of being too sectarian.
Reuters
"The state and official forces must welcome them," Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi told a news conference in Dokan tourist resort north of the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is wary of the patrols, despite the U.S. military crediting them with helping to reduce sectarian violence. It is uneasy about allowing men it once regarded as enemies to organise into armed groups.
Many of the volunteers are former insurgents who previously fought U.S. and Iraqi forces. Most are paid about $10 a day by the U.S. military and are mainly employed to man checkpoints.
"Iraq is now at a crossroads, we either back them or we set back the successful experiment," Hashemi said. "If there was a setback, God forbid, then I believe there will be a big decline in the improved security that Iraq has seen."
Sunni Arabs formed the backbone of the insurgency against U.S. forces and the Shi'ite-led government and have long complained about being marginalised following the rise to political power of Iraq's majority Shi'ites after Saddam Hussein was ousted.
But many Sunni Arab tribes, and former insurgents, have since joined forces with the U.S. military to fight Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. Overall violence in Iraq has dropped by 60 percent since June, according to U.S. military figures.
The government has said it plans to integrate about 20 percent of the estimated 71,000 neighbourhood patrol members into its security forces. Others would be offered vocational training for civilian jobs.
"The topic of debate should not be whether to take in 20 percent or 30 percent. These are people who have presented themselves as targets to fight terrorism voluntarily," Hashemi said.
Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite politician, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, called last week for tighter controls on the volunteer force and for a better sectarian mix in the mainly Sunni units.
Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim warned a day later that the government would not tolerate a "third force", saying only policemen and soldiers should carry arms.
Hashemi was in Dokan to sign a memorandum of understanding between his Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab party in parliament, and the two main Kurdish parties led by Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, and Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Talabani told the news conference that the agreement was aimed at forming a "real" national unity government, but he gave no details. Sunni Arabs pulled out of Maliki's government earlier this year, accusing him of being too sectarian.
Reuters
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