Top Iraqi Cleric Calls on Nation to Repudiate New Governing Council
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ROBERT F. WORTH July 19, 2003
New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 18 — A leading Iraqi cleric who has a wide following among poor and young Shiites called today for Iraqis to reject the country's newly formed Governing Council and replace it with a council that in his view better represents the interests of Iraqis.
The cleric, Sayed Muktada al-Sadr, also called for the creation of an "Islamic army" that would answer to religious leaders. Comments from other Shiite leaders were more muted, however.
The pronouncements today by Mr. Sadr, whose influence is particularly strong among Shiites in poor districts of Baghdad and other urban areas, came as another American soldier was killed in Falluja, the city west of Baghdad where violent resistance to American forces has been particularly strong.
[A military spokesman said on Saturday that another American soldier had died of wounds from hostile fire, Agence France-Presse reported. The soldier was from the Army's First Armored Division, based in Baghdad. No details of the incident, which took place on Friday, were immediately available.]
The soldier killed in Falluja, who was with the Third Infantry Division, died from wounds after a remote-detonated bomb exploded under his vehicle near a traffic circle, a military spokesman said. The explosion left a crater in the road that was a foot and a half deep, the spokesman said, and caused the vehicle to cross two lanes of traffic and veer off the road.
No other soldiers were wounded in the 3:18 p.m. attack, which followed a day of relative quiet for American forces. On Thursday, the anniversary of the Baath Party's takeover of Iraq in 1968, American officials had braced for widespread violence from loyalists of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. The attacks never came, although on Wednesday, the anniversary of Mr. Hussein's elevation to ruler of Iraq in 1979, insurgents killed one American soldier, wounded six others and assassinated the American-backed mayor of Haditha in western Iraq.
The Iraqi Governing Council, formed last Sunday after months of negotiations between Iraqi leaders and the top American civil administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, has been criticized by Iraqis who view it as an arm of the American occupation. Today was the first Muslim holy day since the Council was formally established, and it gave Mr. Sadr an opportunity to denounce it for what he described as its subservience to the Americans.
"We oppose and refuse the Council, which doesn't represent Iraqis," Mr. Sadr told followers at a gathering south of Baghdad. "We call for the formation of an Islamic army that will obey the religious marjia," he said, referring to the term used to describe senior Shiite religious leaders.
"We have to open the doors for the people to register in this great army," he said.
Mr. Sadr's influence is derived from his late father, the Ayatollah Muhammad Sadik al-Sadr, one of Iraq's most influential clerics when he was assassinated with two of his sons in 1999. Shiites widely believe that agents of Mr. Hussein's were the killers.
Other Shiite leaders have been more restrained in their comments about the Council. Three weeks ago, the most important Shiite leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a religious edict, or fatwa, demanding that Iraq hold elections to select representatives who would draft the Iraqi constitution. Under the plan laid out by Mr. Bremer this week, the Governing Council would draft the constitution, which would then be put to a vote in a national referendum.
Today, Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, reported that Ayatollah Sistani had met recently with Shiite tribal leaders and had re-emphasized to them the necessity of electing a body that would write the Iraqi constitution even before it was put to a public referendum. So far, however, Ayatollah Sistani has avoided any denunciation of the Council similar to the comments today by Mr. Sadr.
Thirteen of the 25 members of the Governing Council are Shiites. While many are not conservative religious figures, having a majority of Shiites on the Council was crucial to securing the participation of influential Shiites, including Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. His brother, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, is the spiritual leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a longstanding opposition group during Mr. Hussein's rule.
While Shiites were widely persecuted by Mr. Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, they will have an immense influence in postwar Iraq: Shiites make up 60 percent of the population and dominate the southern part of the country.
In comments today, Ayatollah Hakim danced a fine line, criticizing the power of Mr. Bremer to veto decisions made by the Council but not offering any broad criticism of it. Mr. Bremer said this week that he did not expect to exercise any vetoes.
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