Reconciliation means appeasement, compromise and agreement between conflicting parties, groups, etc. When the old state of Iraq collapsed in April 2003, what thought to be a harmonious Iraqi society, turned out to be a highly conflicted society. The social components of the state of Iraq entered in a communal, ethnic and sectarian struggle. In order to deal with such a situation, a reconciliation process needed to be conducted by governmental and non-governmental agencies. This process was not truly conducted by state agencies for different reasons.
By Murad A. Abbas, Radhi S. Jassam
Reconciliation
means appeasement, compromise and agreement between conflicting parties,
groups, etc. When the old state of Iraq collapsed in April 2003, what
thought to be a harmonious Iraqi society, turned out to be a highly conflicted
society. The social components of the state of Iraq entered in a communal,
ethnic and sectarian struggle. In order to deal with such a situation, a reconciliation
process needed to be conducted by governmental and non-governmental agencies.
This process was not truly conducted by state agencies for different reasons.
The rebuilding
of the new Iraqi state since April 2003 is considered as one of the major
socio-political engineering projects ever to be done in Iraq since the creation
of the stat in 1921. The rebuilding project requires:
1) Destruction
of all the socio-political infra-structures of not just being the old state,
but being the Iraqi society as a whole;
2) Changing the
nature and philosophy of the old state and building a new philosophy suitable
to all new socio-political forces that have taken control of the administration
after the establishment of the Iraqi consultative ruling counsel by Paul
Bremer, the first American ruler of Iraq in May of 2003.
The
understanding of the paths of national reconciliation in Iraq requires the
study of the role of governmental agencies since the creation of the first
Iraqi authority under the rule of the occupation authority, until the end of
the fourth elected government in 2014.
1) National Reconciliation
during the stage of Consultative Ruling council (C R C).
The CRC never
deal with such a term. The reason is that, despite the total loss of a state
security institutions, the Iraqi society was still quite and controlling their
own affairs cooperatively. The C R C should issue an initiative similar to the
one of South Africa , in order to set future foundations of
maintaining harmony among the components of Iraqi society.
2) National
Reconciliation during the rule of the government of Mr. Ayad Allawy.
During that
period, Sectarian and communal violence have not erupted yet among the
component of Iraqi society. But the government was very busy fighting elements
defying the new government authority. Fighting such elements made Allawy lose
his future political career. So, there was no real motive for Allawy to issue
such an initiative of National Reconciliation.
3) National
Reconciliation during the rule of the government of Mr. Ibrahim Al-Jaafari May
2005-June 2006.
This stage of
rule, had witnessed the first appearance of the internal tension and conflict.
In February 2006 Sunni fanatics north of Baghdad exploded Holly
Shrine of Shiaa. This event had led to a civil strife among Muslim sects in Iraq .
In addition, this event made the Arab League to call for the participation in a
conference held in Cairo inviting all representatives of Iraqi
conflicting groups. The conference was under the patronage of former president
of Egypt Mr. Husni Mubarak. The representatives of the permanent
staffs at the Security Council attended the conference and many other representatives
of others concerned states and groups. The Iraqi conflicting groups attending
the conference agreed on ending the causes of conflicts in Iraq through
the following of certain procedures. One of these would be the launching of
National Reconciliation initiative. What happened after the end of the
conference was that, all the Iraqi groups, weather governmental or
nongovernmental forgot what they agreed upon during the conference and entered
in a bloody period, which looked like a civil war.
4) National
Reconciliation during the rule of the first government of Mr. Nory Al-Maliky
June 2006-June 2010.
Mr. Al-Maliky is
considered the first Iraqi rulers to deal seriously with the issue of National
Reconciliation. He had to confront those who defy the authority militarily, and
at the same time, setting the rules for the assimilation for all those who
would like to abandon the use of weapon and join the political process in Iraq.
On June 25 2006, he announced the initiation of the reconciliation program to
deal with all the problems created by terrorism and administrative corruption (Annabaa.org,
2006) . Iraqi parliament supported such a step and forms a committee
to deal with such an issue. Mr. Akram AL Hakeem was the head of this committee
and later, he became the first minister to such an issue in the modern
political history of Iraq (State
Ministry of National Dialogue Affairs, 2007, 2008) . Due to the
political and social complexities of the Iraqi political process, the ministry
could not achieve any real success. Instead, they issued statements describing
the progress of their work and mostly exaggerating that work (Edited
Book, 2009) .
The objectivity
requires us to be fair in evaluating the work of reconciliation under Al
Maliky’s two term’s administration:
- It is highly
mistaken to hold AL Maliky government responsible for the failure of all the
programs and policies of reconciliation. Other groups should bear a great share
of the responsibility. The government of Mr. Maliky inherited from its
predecessors and then passed to its successor Mr. Al-Abade, Many problems
created by internal and external factors, which resulted in making conflicting
circumstances and national fighting. Because of Mr. Maliky’s policies in his
second government, those problems have been broadened and deepened, causing the
missing of many opportunities of achieving national reconciliation.
Some of those
major problems are:
1) The change of
the previous Iraqi regime through a military act by a foreign power did not get
the consensus of the Iraqi societal and political forces. This fact has led to
the division among those forces, and this division has led or forced many of those
forces to carry weapon and fight those forces that work on holding the
authority and run the political regime. In order to achieve a real and
transparent reconciliation process in Iraq, we should get rid of this division
and prepare a fertile environment to make all societal and political forces
trust each other and work together to achieve harmony which would be reflected
in a good decisions for building a real state institutions.
2) The formation
of the Consultative Ruling Council (C R C) by the occupation authority on the
basis of distributing powers among the ethnic, religious, and sectarian
components of the Iraqi society, according to their shares in the society (the
Quota principle) was one of the major causes of armed conflict after the year
2003. This decision was faced by three conflicting views. The first has
received positions never dreamed of, and make it feel satisfied with such a
decision. The second has felt a sever injustice inflicted on its people through
losing much of its former power as well as losing many political posts in the
present authority. The third view focused on the injustice, because they felt
that, they have lost their national identity and the ignorance of the principle
of the equality before the law for all Iraqi citizens. This means that, the
feeling of injustice has never ended among the Iraqis after the fall of the old
political regime, but, it has been transformed from one component to others,
and just became deeper and broader and more severe than its old time.
The feeling of
injustice has led to the increase of violence among the political components,
between those who benefited and those who got dissatisfied by such a decision.
Therefore, the Quota principle is considered to be as the second important
cause of the civil violence in Iraq . We believed that, one of the
most effective factors in stopping this violence is to end the Quota principle
in administering the state of Iraq .
3) The
achievement of the processes of writing and approving the Iraqi constitution
under an environment of distrust and fear among its components, have
contributed significantly to the violent conflict in the following years. Each
party has sought to achieve its own interest on the interest of the other
parties. They have made the process of amending the constitution almost out of
question.
Many articles of
the constitution and other laws should be amended such as, the article
concerning the Governorate of Karrkuke. The de-Bathification and the questioning
and justice, the article concerning the relationship between the federal and
regional governments, the problem of distributing power and authority between
the parliament and the executive, the general pardon law, the problem of Iraqi
identity and the relationship between religion and the state.
The rejection of
the political regime or some of its active participants to amend those
problems, or its inability to amend theme, even if it expressed its will to do
that, would keep those problems unsolved and cause the continuation of the
violent conflict, which would be a major impediment to achieve in the
reconciliation process.
4) The rejection
of the government, or some of its participating parties, to open a compromising
dialogue with many of the opposing political forces despite the influence of
those forces on the social and political life in Iraq, would keep those
opposition forces active in the field against the government which would lead
to delay or even stop the achievement of the national reconciliation process.
5) A total or
partial rejection of many of those oppositions forces to start a compromising
dialogue with the government, would have a negative impact on the achievement
of the process of the national reconciliation.
6) The
un-solving of many of the conflicting cases between the government and few of
the oppositions forces such as (the awakening and support council, the employee
of the dissolved institutions and the high ranking officials of the old regime)
would delay or stop the achievement of the national reconciliation process.
7) The
un-passing of the required legislations for the stability of life and the
legitimacy of the political process in Iraq, such as (the law of political
parties, press, the financial integrity of governmental and political parties
officials, and independence and transparency of the judiciary, the
professionalism and impartiality of security and military institutions) in such
away, which would not lead to or prevent the achievement of the national
reconciliation.
8) The
dissatisfaction expressed by some of the political forces inside or outside the
government concerning many passed legislation and the means to perform them in
such a way, which would not lead to or, delay or prevent the achievement of the
national reconciliation.
9) The
unwillingness of many regional and international parties to achieve a
comprehensive or partial reconciliation for different reasons. Therefore, they
would interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq in such a way that would lead
to delay or prevent the achievement of the national reconciliation.
10) The unsolved
conflicting cases between the Iraqi government and many of the Arab and
regional states, concerning the nature and the scope of the relations with the
government of the United States of America and the neighboring countries, would
push those states to achieve their interest through the intervention in the
internal affairs of Iraq, in such a way that would lead to delay or prevent the
achievement of the national reconciliation.
11) The lack of
the consensus among the Iraqi political forces on common positive principles
for the legitimate and peaceful political activities which would enable them to
achieve the reconciliation process. Those are represented by:
A- The principle
of mutual recognition of the existence and continuation of the all-political
forces, and the right to enjoy equal rights and freedom;
B- The principle
of peaceful dialogue and the non-resort to violence in solving the problems;
C- The principle
of non-dependence on foreign forces in solving internal problems and adopt
internal solutions to internal problems;
D- The adoption
of the principle of good will toward others and avoid adopting double standard;
E- The adoption
of the principle of distributing the national wealth among all citizens
equally;
F- The adoption
of the principle of frankness and admitting committing mistakes and present an
apology to those who got hurt and compensating them, as a pre-request to the
achievement of the reconciliation process and stop the cycle of blood and
revenge;
G- The adoption
of accepting the amendment of the constitution according to the approved
written procedures, because what good for today, would not be good for
tomorrow.
Unfortunately,
the continuation of the problems of reconciliation without finding real
solutions, has led to the broadening and deepening of those problems under the
rule of the second Mr. Maliky’s government. The worsening of security situation
as a result of the prolongation of those problems, and the unwillingness of the
government to find solutions -despite the fact that it had the human and
financial resources to solve those problems- have led to the inheritance of
those problems by the new government of Mr. Al-Ibady. Consequently, it is
natural that, Al-Ibady government is going to suffer badly of the negative
results to such a situation.
In September
2014, Mr. Al-Ibady formed the new Iraqi government under a highly complicated
and negative circumstance; it has to bear all the negative consequences of the
three elected proceeding governments:
- The first
negative consequences to deal with, is the loss of more than a third of Iraq’s
territory, which become under the rule of the Islamic State. This event is
considered to be as one of the consequences of leaving the reconciliation
process unsolved and the harsh dealing with its components;
- The second
negative consequence is to manage the human and financial cost of the military
operations to liberate those territories, despite the fact that the new
government has found the treasury empty and have to look for new sources to
finance its daily needs;
- The third
negative consequence is the declining of the prices of oil. It is the only
source to finance all aspects of life in Iraq . The government is
suffering from dedicating a large sum of money to solve the reconciliation
problem, which is considered the most important factor in liberating the
occupied territories.
Al-Ibady
governmental should realize that, many of what it has desired to achieve, is
linked to what will be achieved in the reconciliation process. We need to know
that, the in achievement of the reconciliation process, till the present time
and after the withdrawal of the American forces, is caused by the negative
foreign intervention on one side, and the principal of Quota on the other. These
two negative factors are leading to increase the suffering of the Iraqi
situation, which represented by:
- The passing of
too many legal and constitutional legislations and the unprofessional
application especially of those related to the reconciliation which would cause
not just stopping to any future achievement in it, but it may cause the
sabotage of what previously had been achieved in it, in spite of its
limitation;
- The factor of
the demands of those who objected to the bases of the formulation of the
government and its programs and work accused it of being impartial, bias, and
not honest in performing what they want. This kind of thinking would not lead
to achieve any agreement between those parties;
- The indecisive
governmental interaction with the popular demands accompanied by the ignorance
of the committees of the parliament and their irresponsible public statements
made by many members of these specialized committees would not help in making
any future achievement in the reconciliation process, and sometimes it would
backfire through stopping the few works of the reconciliation;
- The foreign
support factor to those demands, have led to the formation of many axis and
alliances between those who adopted them and the supporting foreign powers.
This factor would not only lead to blocking the work of the reconciliation, but
it would make Iraq the arena of struggle among these foreign powers.
In addition, it would transform Iraqis into agents of implementing the
objectives of those foreign powers.
Achieving
reconciliation in Iraq requires treating all those factors through direct,
serious and frank dialogue between the government and all those opposing
parties. The first thing is supposed to be treated is not just achieving the
reconciliation, but to correct the whole Iraqi situation, including the state
of the political process, the Quota principle which become the most important
negative factor which breeds all other negative problems after the official
withdrawal of the American forces.
About The Author:
Murad A. Abbas
and Radhi S. Jassam, Department of Political Thought, International Studies,
University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
Publication Details:
This work is an
extract from a research article titled
“The Problems of Rebuilding a State in
Iraq 2003-2015” published at
Open Journal of Political Science, Vol.05
No.04(2015),
Article ID:57117,8 pages 10.4236/ojps.2015.54026.
Download The Paper - LINK
Copyright © 2015
by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC-BY)
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