BAGHDAD – The new outbreak of violence in Baghdad has shattered ceasefire talks between Shia militants and the Iraqi government.
Following a successful if fragile ceasefire in the holy city Najaf, it was hoped that talks in the impoverished Sadr City of Baghdad would become a model for further negotiations between the government and followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The government of appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi along with the U.S. military has been engaged in daily talks with leaders in Sadr City. Many of the million or so Shias here are Sadr supporters.
The deadlock remained as violence tore through Sadr City, home to more than a million Shias. Iraqi health ministry officials say at least 34 people died Tuesday and 170 were wounded. This followed clashes earlier on Monday.
The peace talks were being held after Moqtada Sadr agreed a ceasefire in Najaf and asked his Mahdi army to observe nationwide peace with U.S. and Iraqi forces. But in effect each city is expected to negotiate its own agreement with the government.
The talks in Sadr City have been particularly significant. "The negotiations in Sadr City are very important," Sadr spokesman in Baghdad Sheikh Salah Jasem al-Obaidi told IPS. "Many people in Sadr City have friends and relatives in other cities and governorates. If talks fail here, people in other parts of the country will have a bad impression of the sincerity of the government to reach real peace with the people."
U.S. officials agree that talks must succeed, but for different reasons.
"A lot of these people move from one part of the country to another," a senior U.S. military official, who cannot be named in line with military rules, told IPS. "The sooner we can get an agreement with them, the sooner we can isolate parts of the problems and move on to other fish."
Officials closely informed about the Sadr City talks said they had hoped the negotiations would be completed last week. They said one reason for the delay was that the Sadr City delegation did not include Sadr’s representatives at first.
"In the beginning it was only the leaders of the tribes, but we realized that they could not really negotiate strongly with the Americans, so delegates from the Sadr office joined them," al-Obaidi said.
Since then two negotiating points seem to have dragged the talks to no end.
"One of the most important items is the weapons of people inside Sadr City," al-Obaidi said. "The American troops said that we have to start our truce after surrender of weapons. The Iraqi tribes refused."
Al-Obaidi and other Sadr advisors say they want a buyback program in which the government will pay for guns turned in by Sadr City militiamen.
No one has a close idea how many guns and of what kind are stashed away in Sadr City, but they are generally believed to include Soviet-era AK-47s, semi-automatic machine guns and shoulder-fired rockets.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say they cannot accept a buyback plan before the truce because militiamen could sell some guns and attack them with the rest.
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that handed power to the appointed Iraqi government in June had offered a similar buyback deal to insurgents. But U.S. officials admit that few took up the offer.
The other sticking point in the talks is the presence of U.S. forces in the district. Sadr negotiators demand replacement of U.S. troops by Iraqi police and security forces. Al-Obaidi says the United States insists on maintaining its forces in the district.
"They say that the Iraqi police cannot protect the city," he said. "The Iraqi tribes, the head of the tribes said, no, you have to retreat and we give our word that we will help them ourselves. We will help the Iraqi police ourselves in order to maintain the place peaceful."
Police chief Nabil Abdulghader said last week there are 10 police stations in Sadr City, each with 20 to 30 policemen. U.S. official say that for security reasons they cannot divulge the number of troops they have stationed in the area.
Residents say the United States army is trying to negotiate on the one hand and arrest as many Mahdi army militiamen as possible on the other.
"That’s just bad policy and politics," says a leading Iraqi politician. "If anything, the Americans should have learned by now that power politics does not work in this country, at least not in the long term."
The deadlock has also raised doubts about plans by the Allawi government to improve Sadr City, perhaps the poorest neighborhood in Baghdad.
Allawi sent several of his ministers to Sadr City last week to meet local representatives. The government has promised to spend $345 million to build schools and houses here and to provide much-needed water and electricity.
"The government would love to, and can invest in these areas," says Hamed Kifaee, former Governing Council spokesman. "But first, there has to be peace. You cannot invest and build up infrastructure when people are shooting at each other."
