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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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religious (7), people (7), senators (7), bill (7), instance (7), existing (7), leaders (7), states (7), problem (7), status (7), parties (7), historical (7), nationalist (7), north (7), former (7), taken (7), regime (7), energy (7), like (6), com (6), posted (6), comments (6), babel (6), muri (6), another (6), between (6), special (6), iranian (6), under (6), example (6), parts (6), including (6), najaf (6), although (6), amendment (6), many (6), see (6), implementing (6), perhaps (6), two (6), major (6), popular (6), themselves (6), paper (6), letter (6), spring (6), back (6), important (6), identity (6), dhi (6), qar (6), marshes (6), areas (6), kurdish (6), attitudes (6), demands (6), already (5), dominated (5), plans (5), how (5), out (5), question (5), own (5), biden (5), yet (5), quite (5), revision (5), because (5), community (5), simply (5), beyond (5), demand (5), procedures (5), create (5), approach (5), unitary (5), sense (5), clear (5), coexistence (5), hasnawi (5), www 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eological developments have been accompanied by cruder actions on the ground since its emergence in early 2003 the fadila party has worked systematically to assert its influence within the local oil industry in basra more than any other party it has succeeded in exercising some kind of control through personal links with leaders in the southern oil company and through its dominance in the special security forces charged with guarding the oil installations on more than one occasion political strikes in the oil industry have been construed as acts of regional protest by fadila leaders as for instance in march 2005 when basra s governor muhammad al waili met with oil workers on strike who were demanding that sons of the south be recruited to the ministries of oil and transport 32 and again in july that year when he claimed that the strike among the oil workers has political aims notably to reduce the power of the central government and to achieve far reaching prerogatives for the local administration as well as a fair share of the oil revenue 33 the same theme was invoked in december 2005 when the three southern governorates refused to implement a hike in oil prices a measure which had been decided centrally and was immediately heeded in other parts of iraq 34 the novelty of this new southern approach to energy ownership is perhaps best appreciated when contrasted with attitudes in areas further north after the three petro governorates of the far south wasit is the shiite area with the greatest concentration of energy resources but here local politicians were much less assertive than their southern counterparts during an interview in july 2006 a delegation from the governorate was received by the prime minister in the presence of the oil minister concerning the possibilities to exploit the al ahdab oil field and the prime minister signaled his good intentions in this matter and the oil minister assured us that he had been in contact with the chinese concerning contracts they had signed with the old regime 35 similarly in karbala which has no oil of its own in december 2005 the local governor patiently explained the central government s change of the price of petrol by asserting that the central government is the custodian and the manager al ra iy wa al mudabbir which is not susceptible to the short sighted whims of popular opinion adding that the step was part of a larger package to reduce iraq s external debt 36 this pliant attitude is what has now changed in the far south whereas iraqis throughout the ages have demanded their rights huquqna often a somewhat intangible and elusive concept southern iraqis are now asking to be taken seriously in claiming specific rights relating to their energy wealth importantly from this perspective what was celebrated by the bush administration in september 2007 as iraqi sharing of oil revenue in the absence of oil legislation simply represented the cordial apportioning by shiites from central iraq and by the kurds of booty taken from the oil wells of the far south however by no means is this conversion to new attitudes towards energy resources universal in the far south for one thing there are politicians who advocate a federal status for basra but nevertheless maintain that the central government should have a leading role in managing oil resources that is a more leading role than that foreshadowed in the 2005 constitution where baghdad s role in many aspects is circumscribed to the management of existing i e already developed or explored oil fields one proponent of this kind of approach is wail abd al latif the federalist pioneer who in a constitutional amendment proposal suggested the following arrangement oil gas and all minerals and metals are the property of the iraqi people in all the regions and governorates the federal government will administer this property existing and unexploited and undiscovered fields alike and is responsible for its distribution to the iraqi people in the regions and the governorates in accordance with population figures with particular attention to those governorates that were hurt by the policies of the former regime and need special development aid to reach the level of the rest of the country 37 yet other basrawis concerned about oil do not even foresee any federal status for their area at all preferring instead to work to improve the status of the producing governorates in the proposed oil legislation for iraq 38 southern regionalism and the ideal of coexistence perhaps the most complicated aspect of southern regionalism concerns identity issues clearly the region of the south is an attempt to define a kind of identity that is non sectarian and instead rooted in shared historical experience but the relationship to existing ideologies like iraqi and arab nationalism still remains somewhat ambiguous anti sectarianism does play a certain role southerners deplore the system under which they are supposed to obtain their share of government spoils through shiite quotas which they see as continued dominance by shiites from baghdad and from the holy cities of najaf and karbala 39 they demand to be taken seriously when they argue against sectarian formulas for distributing government positions and the elaborate ideological justification offered to back up this position suggests that the standard allegation of ulterior motives the fadila party is merely protesting because they were not accorded a ministry is inadequate 40 and to a certain extent these lofty declarations have been followed up on the ground in basra for instance fadila has taken the lead in attempts to improve relations between the local government and the sunni minority territorially concentrated in zubayr and abu al khasib 41 there are however clear limits to this inter sectarian generally inclusive aspect of the regionalist enterprise in the south instead of becoming the coalition partners of the fadila sunni parties christian minorities as well as secularists of all confessional backgrounds have increasingly distanced themselves from the local federalists the secular 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 loy...
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