Cleric Suspends Battle in Basra by Shiite Militia

03/31/2008

By ERICA GOODE and JAMES GLANZ
NY Times
Published: March 31, 2008


BAGHDAD — The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Sunday called for his followers to stop fighting in Basra and in turn demanded concessions from Iraq’s government, after six days in which his Mahdi Army militia has held off an American-supported Iraqi assault on the southern port city.

Firsthand Look at Basra Shows Value of White Flag (March 31, 2008)

The substance of Mr. Sadr’s statement, released Sunday afternoon, was hammered out in elaborate negotiations over the past few days with senior Iraqi officials, some of whom traveled to Iran to meet with Mr. Sadr, according to several officials involved in the discussions.

Still, though fighting was reported to have died down by late afternoon in Basra, it continued in Baghdad, including heavy combat by Iraqi and American troops and aircraft in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, casting uncertainty on the deal.

A strict curfew imposed by the government on Thursday was lifted at 6 a.m. Monday.

The negotiations with Mr. Sadr were seen as a serious blow for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who had vowed that he would see the Basra campaign through to a military victory and who has been harshly criticized even within his own coalition for the stalled assault.

Last week, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Kadir al-Obeidi, conceded that the government’s military efforts in Basra have met with far more resistance than was expected. Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the Basra campaign and that he is in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival, for a way out.

And it was a chance for Mr. Sadr to flaunt his power, commanding both armed force and political strength that can forcefully challenge the other dominant Shiite parties, including Mr. Maliki’s Dawa movement and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. In the statement, Mr. Sadr told militia members “to end all military actions in Basra and in all the provinces” and “to cooperate with the government to achieve security.”

But Mr. Sadr also demanded concessions, including that the government grant a general amnesty for his followers, release all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of crimes and bring back “the displaced people who have fled their homes as a result of military operations.”

It was not clear if the government was willing to meet those demands.

Mr. Sadr’s willingness to negotiate represents a significant shift from his stance in 2004, when he ordered his militia to fight to the death in the holy city of Najaf, and suggests that his political sophistication and strategic skills have grown in the last two years.

In an interview, Mahmoud al-Mashadani, the Parliament speaker and a senior Sunni politician, said, “With this statement, Sayyed Moktada al-Sadr proved that he is a good politician, working for the sake of Iraq.”

Over the past two years, Mr. Sadr’s popular support has eroded as his movement has gained a reputation for harboring criminals and thugs and carrying out vicious sectarian killings.

After the statement was released Sunday, a spokesman for Mr. Maliki, Ali al-Dabbagh, appearing on the television station Iraqiya, said that the government welcomed the action and that Mr. Sadr’s gesture demonstrated his “concern for Iraq and Iraqis.” And he insisted that the government offensive in Basra was not aimed specifically at Mr. Sadr’s militiamen but rather against rogue Shiite factions there, seemingly trying to leave room to maneuver with Mr. Sadr’s political organization.

Mr. Mashadani said negotiations on the statement involved senior Iraqi clerics and at least 10 senior Iraqi politicians from the main parties, including Iraq’s president, Jalal al-Talabani, a Kurd, representatives of Mr. Sadr in Najaf, and the prime minister himself.

There was some disagreement over exactly which government representatives traveled to Iran to meet with Mr. Sadr, but several negotiators said they believed that two members of Parliament were involved: Ali Adeeb, of Mr. Maliki’s Dawa Party, and Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council.

The substance of the nine points in Mr. Sadr’s statement was developed in the course of those sprawling negotiations, said Saleh al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Mr. Sadr in Najaf. Overall, the statement was “a kind of proposal to the government” to help the citizens of Basra, Mr. Obeidi said.

He said the proposal was accepted, and Mr. Sadr made the statement.