Iraq's Sunnis say things never worse

updated 5:38 p.m. ET June 12, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government has been in power less than two months, and minority Sunni Arabs — the dominant force in the nation’s relentless and bloody insurgency — are struggling to find a place in the country’s future.

But the once-powerful community, at its lowest point since the U.S.-led invasion and ouster of Saddam Hussein, refuses to accept second-class status and believes it still has trump cards to play — chief among them: withholding approval of a new constitution in a fall referendum.

“These are very harsh times for us,” said legislator Salih al-Mutlak, leader of a Sunni Arab umbrella group. “I am not optimistic, but maybe things will change after the next election.”

Iraq’s minority Sunni Arabs — who were dominant under Saddam but sidelined when he was toppled — have been force to surrender virtually all authority to the long-oppressed Shiite Muslim majority and to the likewise oppressed Kurds, who enjoy autonomy in their region in northern Iraq and are mainly Sunnis.

Worse under new government
As bad as conditions became after Saddam fell from power and the Americans were running things, many Sunni Arab leaders claim conditions have only become worse under the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

An ongoing security sweep in Baghdad, they say, has singled them out for random arrests. They also complain of brutal and high-handed treatment during raids of their homes by forces of the Iraqi police and army.

Shiite militiamen, they insist, are killing their clerics and hounding them out of government jobs to make way for supporters of ruling coalition parties.

Al-Jaafari’s government denies pushing a sectarian agenda and has reached out to the Sunni Arabs, giving them Cabinet posts and endorsing proposals for them to have a bigger political role.

But the overtures have done little to ease Sunni fears of exclusion or to defuse the insurgency. To the contrary, violence has only intensified since the al-Jaafari government took power in late April. Nearly 950 people, U.S. forces included, have been killed in insurgent attacks and bombings since then.

In a move to blunt the attacks, the government Sunday said it was in contact with insurgent groups that want to lay down their weapons and join the political process. Laith Kuba, al-Jaafari’s spokesman, gave no details, saying only that some militant factions had been in direct contact and others put out feelers through intermediaries.

The Sunni-dominated insurgency — unforeseen by U.S. war planners — has cost additional billions of dollars for security, snarled reconstruction efforts and put on hold any plans to draw down the 140,000 American forces still in Iraq.

Contacts between the government and the insurgency were first reported by Shiite and Sunni politicians last week. While they could take months to produce results, they are almost certain to enhance the standing of the Sunni Arab community both in Iraq and with the United States, which still holds sway a year after formally ending its occupation.

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