Five months after elections, and four weeks after a so-called political breakthrough, Iraq still lacks a government while killings and kidnappings continue, writes Nermeen El-Mufti Amid the turmoil and bloodshed, Iraqi politicians haven't ended their bickering over the formation of the next government. As things stand, Iraq may hit the constitutional deadline of 22 May without having a government in office. Politicians speak of political deals in the offing, while Iraqis fear that any such "deals" may fall short of providing them with what they need most -- security and peace. A history teacher had a wake for her mother, an old woman who died peacefully in bed a few weeks ago. Neighbours and friends coming to console the bereaved daughter told her that she should be grateful that her mother died naturally, and not from the violence of ongoing turmoil. Her brother is still trying to book a hall in a mosque for the male-only wake. Because of the high incidence of mortality in the country, it is difficult to find a venue for funeral wakes. The country doesn't have the funerary facilities to deal with so many dead. "Between May 2005 and May 2006, 170,000 bodies arrived at the morgue in Baghdad," a forensic doctor told me. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the same source added, "Most of the bodies indicate that torture took place before the victims were shot in the head." Perpetrators remain unidentified in most cases. A recent human rights report says that more than 25,000 people remain missing after having been abducted in Iraq. These include 3,200 women and 2,000 children. Among the abducted are academics, merchants and students. Dr Hareth Al-Hayali, a veterinary medicine professor at Baghdad University and a member of the Avian Flu Operations Room, was abducted 20 February. His family has paid his abductors $50,000 for his release. He is still missing. The family of Ali Mohawesh, dean of the Engineering College in Al-Mustansariya University, paid over $100,000 to kidnappers. His body was found later. Medical workers say that 1,000 people were killed in Baghdad in April in acts of sectarian violence. "Everyone knows who the killers are, but no one dares to speak. Journalists no longer investigate the causes of death, because six journalists were killed in Baghdad and Basra in the first week of this month. A previously unknown group has issued a list of 461 journalists who, it said, deserved to be killed. In the midst of this continual bloodshed, politicians still haggle over ministerial portfolios, as if they lived in another world and had no care for the suffering of the Iraqis," political analyst Saad Al-Janabi said. A journalist who spotted his name on the hit list told me that "the Iraqis are angry and would do anything to set things right, but they need someone to guide them and explain things to them. In other words, they need a fearless press and journalists who don't live under the threat of death at every turn. Now that 108 journalists have been liquidated, and others have gone missing, how do you expect journalists to speak out? Since I discovered that my name was on the death list, I have been at a loss. Who shall I complain to? And who would protect me? Where shall I go? Who would accept me as a refugee? All Iraqis deserve to have asylum and leave the country. And yet, were I to leave, who would protect my wife and children? We have 461 journalists who are worried for their lives. Average Iraqis are suffering, and yet politicians don't seem to care. The big ones have sent their families abroad. Their children have protection. Their electricity generators work." According to press reports, the Fadila Party has pulled out of government consultations because it didn't get the Oil Ministry. But Fadila spokesman Sabbah Al-Saedi told me that the party has withdrawn because of the pressures exerted on various political groups by the US ambassador. Fadila has decided to join the parliamentary opposition. It would remain part of the Iraqi Alliance List, Al-Saedi said, but not be part of the consultations. Soon after Fadila pulled out, Mohamed Al-Wateli, the governor of Basra who's also a member of Fadila, decided to dismiss the police chief of Basra. The governor accused domestic and foreign powers of interfering in the local affairs of Basra and encouraging death squads and sectarian strife. A police officer on condition of anonymity confirmed what the governor had said. In Basra, the same people are killing Shias and Sunnis; namely, those who wish to foment a sectarian strife, he told me by telephone. "They're doing so to give others a chance to take control of the province." Even with anonymity assured, the officer declined to name the groups responsible for the killings. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Turkoman Front has issued a statement saying that it was not being sufficiently consulted about the new government and therefore wouldn't support any minister who would be nominated without the approval of the Turkoman community. Christian deputy Yonadam Kenna said that the Kurds have nominated a Christian minister that has been rejected by Kenna's list. The only ones benefiting from the ongoing situation are the Kurds. They have their own government in the north as well as the presidency, the Foreign Ministry and other key ministries. "The Americans support our demands," Masoud Barazani told a Russian newspaper a few weeks ago. An emissary of Kofi Annan has arrived in Kirkuk to discuss the possibility of opening a UN office in the city and also to discuss the Kirkuk issue. Ismail Nameq, an expert in Turkoman affairs, told me that international delegations tend to be biased to the Kurds. "These delegations should ask the Kurds -- who came to Kirkuk in hundreds of thousands after the occupation -- to produce title deeds showing that they owned houses or lands, or at least produce identity papers proving that they once lived in the city. Genuine Kurdish refugees have already returned to their homes or have built new homes. But these are about less than 10,000 families. The rest of the Kurds have squatted in empty plots, government offices, parks and stadiums." To prove his point, Nameq referred me to a report written by UN human rights envoy Max van der Stoel. According to the report, ethnic cleansing under Saddam had affected Turkomans more than other communities. Some 25,000 Turkoman families had been evicted from their homes, the report says, compared to 11,700 Kurdish families.
