From Scapegoat to Pillar of the State

Once rebels, now allies of the Americans in Iraq: Sunni militias are charged with ensuring stability in Iraq under government command. Their ranks include a number of ex-Al Qaeda fighters. Peter Philipp reports

They were once part of Al Qaeda in Iraq, then armed Sunni groups suddenly changed sides and joined the US troops. From 1 October they are now being placed gradually under the charge of the Shia-dominated Iraqi central government – starting in Baghdad and then in other parts of the country – drawing their pay from the government as well. No one can say whether the new collaboration will last.

Over the past year and a half, the Al Sahwa ("the awakening") militia have played an important role in curbing the daily violence in Iraq, although there are of course still violent incidents. The recently promoted commanding general of the US troops in the country, David Petraeus, can be proud of his policy of integrating these militiamen, who are estimated at around 100,000 across Iraq, 54,000 of them in Baghdad.

Changing sides for peace

The militia represent the Iraqi Sunni minority, who were in power until Saddam Hussein's downfall and were rightly afraid of being made a scapegoat by the Shia majority and the Kurds for all the injustice and cruelty they suffered under Saddam. The Americans too initially regarded and treated the Sunni as an enemy factor, driving them even faster into the role of underground fighters, terrorists and brothers-in-arms of the (Sunni) Islamist Al Qaeda. And it was these Sunni fighters on one side and the Shia followers of the militant Muqtada al-Sadr on the other, who repeatedly bombed the country to the brink of civil war.

Sunni clan-leaders in the Anbar province were the first to realise that this path would lead nowhere, simply plunging the country even deeper into bloody chaos. They accepted the US offer to change sides, getting rid of the fanatics who joined them from all over the Arab and Muslim world to combat the Americans in the name of religion and Osama Bin Laden. The US Army, one day still fighting against these Sunni groups, the next day began training, arming and paying them.

No schedule for integration into the armed forces

The fact that no small number of these men were known to the population as Al Qaeda fighters was no hindrance to the collaboration. It was only in Shia circles – up to and including the government – that there was scepticism over whether this sudden U-turn would last or the members of "Awakening" would abandon their new leaf and take arms against their fellow Iraqis again after all. To prevent this happening and to push on the national reconciliation process, the Maliki government has now agreed to take over the command of the Al Sahwa militia. It seems unclear, however, whether and when the "Sahwa" can be integrated into Iraq's regular armed forces.

Peter Philipp

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Qantara.de

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