“There are no disputes among the Iraqi people,” Iraqi MP Hisham Al-Suhail, head of the Reconciliation Committee of the Iraqi parliament, told Al-Ahram Weekly this week, adding that “reconciliation in Iraq is not just an internal issue, but also depends on agreements among the regional countries.” Al-Suhail was giving his point of view on the Syrian situation, where the conflict in the country has come to a halt as a result of a deal among regional countries. He told the Weekly that he had discussed his views with the American ambassador and other foreign diplomats in Baghdad. In his view, the historic settlement proposed by the Iraqi National Alliance bloc would not resolve the sources of conflict in Iraq without agreement among regional countries. “The historic settlement is a deal among the leading political blocs in Iraq in their own interests, paving the way to the upcoming general elections in 2018,” commented Shatha Nasrallah, an Iraqi activist, of the government's latest attempt to bring about reconciliation. “When Ammar Al-Hakim, the leader of the National Alliance, announced his project, Salim Al-Jubori, the speaker of the parliament, used the term ‘understanding'. But both men are talking about the same thing in my opinion,” Nasrallah said. “Although there are different points of view regarding the settlement project, we need to work with it if we are to create a bearable life in Iraq after the end of the Islamic State [IS] group,” Ali Naji, an Iraqi political analyst, told the Weekly. “The term ‘settlement' means solving consensually the problems among the different parties and blocs in the country,” Naji said. He added that many so-called “honour documents” had been signed by the different blocs and parties over the past decade, even as the violence had continued. In his view, the current project should be given full attention for the sake of the future unity of Iraq. “A united Iraq is a must, not a choice, and if the country does not remain united all Iraqis will lose out,” said Deldar Zibari, an independent Kurdish politician. “We need to work on real national reconciliation that guarantees the rights of all Iraqis regardless of religion and ethnic origin,” Zibari told the Weekly. However, there was also a need for reconciliation projects to be managed by other government bodies. “Those who are currently leading these projects are unqualified,” he said, adding that, “I am sorry to say that those who are leading the projects are doing it just to continue being on the Iraqi political scene.” Zibari confirmed that national reconciliation meant civil rights for all Iraqis. “There are problems threatening the success of any project, even the historic settlement because it is restricted to the leading political blocs of the Shias, Sunnis and Kurds and excludes the views of civil society and of the religious and ethnic minorities,” Saad Salloum, an Iraqi academic and journalist specialising in Iraqi minorities and human rights, told the Weekly. “I have my doubts about it, but I can confirm that any reconciliation project should be submitted by cross-sectarian groups,” Salloum said. Any reconciliation project for Iraq after IS should be built on restoring the confidence that had been lost during the IS occupation of parts of the country, he added. There was a need for horizontal confidence among Iraqi individuals and vertical confidence between individuals and the authorities. “The authorities have lost the confidence of the people because of the corruption and the blood that has been split,” Salloum said. “Today, there is no political party in Iraq that has a clear vision regarding the mechanism of building confidence.” Continuing its efforts towards national reconciliation, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) with the collaboration of the Iraqi Amal Association organised a forum of Iraqi youth on 28 January in the southern city of Basra under the title of “Iraq: Youth and Coexistence”. The forum aimed to present the voices of the younger generations in the national reconciliation process, launching the first in a series of cross-country sessions in Basra and highlighting the importance of young people in post-conflict Iraq. The recommendations of this process will be discussed at a national conference in May. “The aim of the forum was to give a voice to young people in Iraq, given their crucial role in charting the road to peaceful co-existence in a future Iraq. With these kinds of forums, like the one in Basra, the younger generations of Iraqis across different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds can deliberate on post-conflict issues, engage in national reconciliation and voice their opinions,” a statement said. “The rebuilding of infrastructure, restoration of essential services, rule of law, schools and employment are ever more important to restore confidence in the government in Iraq,” special representative of the UN secretary-general for Iraq Ján Kubiš told the UN Security Council recently. “The return of internally displaced people holds the key to rebuilding Iraq's societal fabric. It is part of the reconciliation and healing,” he added. “We Iraqis love each other, and we have lived for centuries together,” Nadia Ali, a mother who lost her son during the sectarian war of 2006-2008, told the Weekly, adding that she had found her Sunni son's grave in Najaf, the holy Shia city. Marwan, her son, had been announced as missing, and Nadia had found his photograph on a list of unknown people. She then discovered that the bodies of these people had been buried in Najaf. “In the Najaf cemetery, I met Sunni mothers along with Shia mothers who were crying together and swearing that they would act like sisters in the future,” she said. It was now up to the country's political blocs to find a similar path towards reconciliation, she added.
