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description= 3 posts published by Reidar Visser during December 2007;
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in, of, non, the, sectarian, iraq, and, federalism, far, south, southern, suffering, coexistence, on, gulf, analysis, archive, for, december, 2007, sectarianism, iraqi, federalist, tradition, ownership, local, energy, resources, regionalism, ideal, conclusion, under, pressure, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, oil, ideals, federal, trends, nonsense, congress, anti, police, commander, is, assassinated, babel,
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the (717), and (184), iraq (102), that (98), for (90), iraqi (68), with (67), basra (66), this (65), #federalism (63), sectarian (62), federal (60), shiite (57), from (55), 2006 (49), oil (48), 2005 (46), south (45), 2007 (44), #southern (40), has (39), government (37), their (37), have (36), was (36), non (31), but (30), fadila (30), region (29), they (28), may (28), constitution (28), not (27), one (26), are (26), which (24), more (24), october (24), some (23), been (23), december (23), governorates (23), sciri (22), all (22), were (22), august (21), had (21), july (21), even (20), its (20), also (19), new (19), where (19), central (18), september (18), local (18), 2004 (18), march (18), january (17), during (17), political (17), when (17), far (17), there (16), should (16), would (16), shiites (16), party (15), who (15), any (15), manara (15), governorate (14), support (14), idea (14), than (14), baghdad (14), february (14), about (13), instead (13), after (13), regions (13), united 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manara newspaper for example now tends to feature articles critical to any kind of federalism whereas the paper was pro federal back in 2005 42 and in october 2007 it was left to the embattled basra police chief unpopular with many of the shiite religious parties to defend basra s cosmopolitan heritage deploring the deteriorating situation of the women of the gulf city they are increasingly being subjected to harassment and even murder in the name of religious piety abd al jalil khalaf al shuwayli reminded journalists that basra is the home of numerous religious sects whose leaders do not impose any particular dress code or social practices 43 one factor that may have prevented the crystallization of a purely regional identity with a wide appeal is the survival of a considerable degree of iraqi nationalism within regionalist circles the fadila party for instance clearly maintains substantial ambitions on the national iraqi scene and its religious leadership in najaf frequently speaks the language of the unitary state 44 several times the fadila governor has made a point of posing as an iraqi nationalist openly accusing sciri of being an iranian stooge and pointing to his own popularity among rulers in the gulf as evidence of his arab nationalist credentials 45 whereas another basra regionalist muhammad sa dun al abbadi has reproached the kurds for not flying the iraqi flag in the kurdish region to some extent this attitude has also been reflected in the actions of the basra governorate towards its arab and iranian neighbors which must be described as more balanced than those seen in shiite majority governorates further north whereas the basra governorate has awarded contracts to kuwaiti firms iran has played a far more fundamental role in the redevelopment of cities like karbala and najaf the first major reconstruction meeting for najaf took place in tehran in may 2006 46 and a few months earlier the karbala governor had even threatened to contact the iranian consulate unless the agriculture department of the central government could offer immediate assistance with insecticides needed locally 47 this dualism of national and regional identities is clearly evident in the writings of some new southern authors who have emerged after 2003 among them is mahdi al hasnawi who in 2004 published the book the marshes the sumerian civilization 48 in it there is considerable evidence of a distinctive southern identity hasnawi s definition of the south is the three southern governorates of basra maysan and dhi qar and the author uses the marshes as a symbolic focus to tell the story of personalities and tribes from all over this region multi sectarian coexistence in the south is central he devotes no less than six pages to the history of the non muslim communities of the marshland region emphasizing how the jews and the mandaeans exercised their religion in complete freedom in southern iraq and in the environment of the marshes in particular he even traces the history of the jews into exile in israel detailing their settlement in or yehuda near tel aviv and their continued attachment to their former homeland 49 similarly hasnawi portrays shiite sunni relations as particularly amicable in the marsh region with mixed marriages frequent inter sectarian festivities during ramadan and sunni participation on shiite holidays and vice versa but none of this localism serves to eradicate or threaten the themes of iraqi and arab nationalism true the author pays some attention to the non semitic sumerian forefathers of today s southerners but he nevertheless maintains that the majority of the population in the south hails from tribes which had emigrated from the arabian peninsula 50 again there is often the notion of the marshes as an environment particularly supportive of a multi religious society but equally there are references to the valleys of mesopotamia bilad wadi al rafidayn and indeed all of iraq as areas of coexistence that form a contrast to places like pakistan and kashmir 51 despite the book s title there is no attempt to construct any exclusive non iraqi or non arab prehistory for the southern marshlands clearly these kinds of iraqi and arab loyalties have remained important to proponents of federalism in the far south and may serve as distractions that prevent southerners from producing a more fully fledged regionalist identity project forming cross cutting cleavages that work against any form of one dimensional separatism whether shiite or basra they serve as glue for those who subscribe to the wider iraqi nationalist project if anything in the south today it is anti federal iraqi nationalism that still has the upper hand with regard to mastery of the anti sectarian theme according to one basrawi federalism was a problem since the writing of the constitution began and it remains a problem today we should unify from south to north united in love and support for iraq that is what we need today to build a foundation for the future of our dear fatherland and create something unshakeable that will withstand the hurricanes and tornadoes 52 and in the words of another the iraqi people is not something that the british created in 1920 or 1930 it has existed for six thousand years and has taught humanity civilization agriculture irrigation and husbandry today there are forces that wish to divide iraq into regions such as the region of the north and the region of the south the iraqi flag is not flown in the north this is an american zionist plot which will fail god willing 53 conclusion non sectarian federalism under pressure non sectarian federalism in southern iraq persists but it is no longer as vibrant as it was during the first half of 2005 to some extent the southern federalists have themselves to blame for this on top of the problem of reconciling their regionalism with their iraqi nationalism they have also had major difficulties in organizing their political movement they have been unable to transform a widely felt perception of southern marginalization into an integrated political movement as painfully evident during the parliamentary elections in 2005 where pro federal baqir yasin s list 331 performed dismally in the january 2005 poll and where yasin as well as khayrallah al basri both registered parties with an openly regionalist profile for the december elections only to later become subsumed in greater coalitions with more nationalist agendas also southern grievances are often framed in a way that fails to communicate with the established legal framework of the new iraq basrawis have demanded a straightforward share of the oil they produce instead of entering the detailed discussion on oil legislation where they could have pressed their case as a producing governorate and one of the 2007 incarnations of the region of the south project simply declared that it had established a provisional government in the south instead of crafting a strategy that would be compatible with the law for implementing federalism adopted in october 2006 54 but it is also clear that the non sectarian federal vision of iraq s southerners is under immense pressure from the outside and that it is this factor more than anything else that threatens to extinguish it first and foremost the southerners represent a severe problem for the shiite establishment of iraq basra s demand for a share of the oil revenue is not a demand for a shiite share and basra s vision of a small scale non sectarian south is antithetical to sciri s vision of a shiite super region from baghdad to basra shiites from central iraq respond by treating the southerners with extreme condescension using terms such as the wild south and accusing them of being uneducated marsh arabs 55 but they also take concrete action on the ground in the south sciri in particular but also to some extent the maliki government have worked systematically to remove fadila and their noisy regionalism from the local scene in basra after a long period of challenges to fadila in the provincial council in basra nuri al maliki imposed a state of emergency in basra in may 2006 and in the summer of 2007 came out in support of sciri s attempt to remove the fadila governor as yet unsuccessfully lastly the international community and the united kingdom the united states and iran in particular have become parties to the suppression of non sectarian southern federalism in iraq for a long time britain acted quite neutrally in the south standing back from local struggles and thereby allowing some kind of balance of power to emerge with fadila in power in basra sadrists in control in amara and sciri s grip on power limited to nasiriyya and samawa however london now apparently wants to leave quickly and it seems clear that the british government is going to turn a blind eye to fadila s misgivings about the true political loyalties of the national iraqi security apparatus to which power will be handed over the united states for its part has pursued an even simpler shiite strategy in iraq consistently choosing to do business with a few selected personalities of sciri only probably in the hope that they may be able to maintain some kind of superficial calm in what is uncritically lumped together as the shiite south of iraq it seems likely that us involvement in what was formerly british held territories in the far south will only strengthen the tendency towards sciri domination and finally from the point of view of iran the fadila party remains an obvious enemy even if the sadrists as a whole share an often overlooked historical legacy of intense enmity against iran it is above all the fadila party that has dared to persist loudly with this up until today their removal from the basra governorate and the southern oil company clearly seems to be in tehran s best interest although with the absence of support to fadila from other major players some kind of forced cooptation should not be ruled out either ironically then washington london and tehran all seem to share the view that non sectarian variants of federalism in iraq s south are more of a problem then an asset and that sciri dominance in a sectarian framework is preferable sheer logic would indicate that at least one of them is miscalculating notes 1 more recently this project has apparently been renamed iqlim janub baghdad or the region of south of baghdad 2 for similar tendencies in the middle euphrates area see reidar visser the two regions of southern iraq in reidar visser gareth stansfield eds an iraq of its regions cornerstones of a federal democracy london hurst new york columbia university press 2007 3 reidar visser shiite perspectives on a federal iraq territory community and ideology in conceptions of a new polity in daniel heradstveit helge hveem eds oil in the gulf obstacles to democracy and development aldershot ashgate 2004 pp 140 44 4 al da wa february 10 2004 5 al mashriq february 24 2004 6 for shiite support for this idea see article by amir naji hasan in al da wa january 7 2004 7 reidar visser federalism from below in iraq some historical reflections paper presented to an international workshop on iraq after the new government como italy november 2006 www historiae org federalism from below asp 8 often overlooked is the fact that it was only the constitutional revision clause inserted at the twelfth hour ostensibly to placate sunnis that persuaded sistani to give the green light to a yes vote the divergence between sistani s rhetoric and that of the pro sectarian sciri is particularly pronounced on the federalism issue see reidar visser sistani the united states and politics in iraq from quietism to machiavellianism nupi paper no 700 march 2006 www historiae org sistani asp 9 aswat al iraq october 5 2006 10 in bbc abc polls conducted in spring and autumn of 2007 the percentages of shiites who favored a unitary state model with no federalism of any description whether sectarian or non sectarian effectively this would mean a dramatic revision of the 2005 constitution were 41 and 56 respectively 11 al adala september 28 2006 12 reidar visser basra the failed gulf state separatism and nationalism in southern iraq berlin lit verlag 2005 pp 171 72 13 in the south a bid to loosen baghdad s grip christian science monitor june 28 2005 14 press release from the governor s office basra august 1 2007 15 aswat al iraq september 10 2007 16 undated letter from baqir yasin al tamimi to hajim al hasani circa spring 2005 17 al manara october 3 2004 18 al manara march 28 2006 19 posting on http www southiraq org july 1 2005 20 letter from ali husayn faraj to the leadership of the united iraqi alliance may 15 2006 21 al sharq al awsat july 29 2007 press release of the fadila party in basra dated july 28 2007 22 undated letter from baqir yasin al tamimi to hajim al hasani circa spring 2005 23 al manara march 11 2006 24 interview with falak al din kaka i al jazeera television january 23 2004 25 interview in al manara september 1 2004 26 al manara august 22 2004 27 al manara april 13 2005 28 fadila press release march 1 2006 29 fadila press release may 31 2006 also basra seeks more autonomy oil revenue npr august 5 2005 30 letter from ali husayn faraj to the leadership of the united iraqi alliance may 15 2006 31 press release of an entity calling itself the autonomous government of southern iraq july 24 2007 32 al manara march 27 2005 33 al mu tamar july 19 2005 34 reidar visser basra crude the great game of iraq s southern oil nupi paper no 723 2007 www historiae org oil asp 35 al manara july 11 2006 36 government of iraq office of the prime minister reports on the activities of the governors karbala report dated december 27 2005 37 from a document on constitutional reform by abd al latif probably dating from early 2006 38 article by abd al jabbar al hilfi in al manara march 2007 it should be pointed out that the latest draft of the iraqi oil law in some contexts introduced discriminatory measures against oil producing governorates as opposed to those with a federal status whereas in previous drafts all oil producing entities had been on an equal footing 39 posting dated december 24 2005 at http www southiraq org accessed on february 18 2006 the link is now defunct 40 fadila press release september 11 2006 41 fadila press release october 21 2006 42 al manara october 21 and october 28 2006 and july 26 2007 43 aswat al iraq october 3 2007 44 report from fadila party meeting in basra december 20 2006 45 washington post august 19 2006 parties battle in basra washington times august 16 2007 46 al manara may 9 2006 47 al manara february 23 2006 48 mahdi al hasnawi al ahwar hadarat sumir baghdad dar al shu un al thaqafiyya al amma 2004 49 al hasnawi al ahwar p 93 50 ibid p 18 51 ibid p 100 52 al manara october 21 2006 53 riyad al asadi remarks at a federalism conference in basra april 2005 54 press release by the autonomous government of southern iraq july 24 2007 55 conversat...
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