As Iraq convenes its first post-Saddam national conference amid blasts echoing across Baghdad and a raging revolt in Najaf, all eyes turn to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, writes Salah Hemeid Some 1,400 Iraqis concluded a conference on Wednesday aimed at selecting a national assembly, a crucial step in efforts to move the war-wracked country towards stability. But the high-security gathering was marred by disputes over its make-up and the use of military force to end a rebellion by militiamen loyal to the radical Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr who has charged the conference and its organisers with being a tool of the American occupation. The assembly had been postponed for two weeks to attract more participants. It was supposed to be limited to 1,000 members, but US and UN advisors, who hoped to bring more of Iraq's many factions behind the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, asked organisers to invite 300 or 400 additional persons, many of them from religious and ethnic groups that were kept outside. The conference, dubbed as the first step in Iraq's tortured transition towards democracy, was originally planned to take place over three days, but organisers had to extend it one day after many independent delegates, fighting to avoid political marginalisation, protested the meeting voting system which would allow political groups currently in control of the country to tighten their grip on the future government. The conference was designed as an unprecedented forum for Iraqis of all ethnic, religious, sectarian and political groups to discuss plans for the future of the war- ravaged nation. It was called also in order to elect 81 delegates for a 100-member interim parliament that is to organise elections in January. Under the provisional constitution passed by the defunct Interim Governing Council, 19 of its members will retain seats in the interim parliament which will hold veto powers over decrees passed by Allawi's interim government. Even before the conference began, discussions over the make-up of the forum stirred deep concerns amid accusations that key players in the government are working to manipulate the assembly and acquire political ranking in the new regime. Several factions, notably influential Sunni groups like the Association of Muslim Scholars, were opposed to the conference, deriding it as being held under the American occupation. Others said the conference should have been held before the formation of Allawi's government on 28 June in order that the conference could foster national confidence in the interim government and confer legitimacy on it. Ridha Jawad Taqi, a participant representing the Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq said many delegates protested a list of candidates prepared by the organisers for the interim parliament, citing factionalism and cronyism. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that the list gave 51 per cent of the seats to Shia, 20 per cent to Kurds and the rest to Arab Sunnis and smaller religious and ethnic minorities like Turkomans and Christians. Among these, 20 per cent of the seats are earmarked for women and 15 per cent for tribal representatives. In many ways, the conference seemed like a metaphor for Iraq's problems. In addition to heated debates over the selection of members to the national assembly, scores of Shia participants protested Allawi's interim government's decision to mount military operations to evict Al-Sadr's followers from the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, one of the most revered sites of the world's nearly 300 million Shia. The outburst forced the government to halt its offensive in Najaf and made the conference form a committee of delegates to negotiate a solution to the crisis. But Al-Sadr, who has been holed up with around 1,000 of his fighters in the Imam Ali shrine and confronting some of the US's most formidable combat troops, declined the conditions which were set by the conference for an end to the stand-off -- leaving the shrine, disbanding and disarming his Al-Mahdi Army militia and joining the political process. If Al-Sadr, who is posing as a champion of anti-American Shia resistance, sticks to his guns, Allawi is most certainly poised to authorise his American allies to launch a full-scale offensive to crush his rebellion. Hours after Al-Sadr refused to meet with Iraqi leaders sent to Najaf in hope of ending nearly two weeks of fighting between his militia and a US-Iraqi force, Iraq's hard line Minister of Defence Hazim Shaalan warned of "a decisive battle" against the fighters. Even if Al-Sadr's uprising in Najaf is crushed, he has already captured the hearts and minds of millions of Shia as the leader of armed resistance to the American military occupation. He will still retain supremacy in many Shia towns in southern Iraq and in Baghdad's Sadr City, home to 2 million of Baghdad's 6 million people. Even worse for Washington and Allawi's government, he will emerge as a strong contender for the leadership of a future Iranian-style Islamic republic. To deprive him of that chance, Iraqi troops and their American allies would have to either kill him or capture and deport him. Could Allawi pull off such a venture? As heavy fighting resumed between US troops and Shia militiamen in Najaf on Wednesday, violence continued to escalate elsewhere in Iraq. Iraq's Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 21 people had been killed in clashes in Baghdad, Basra, Diwaniya and Najaf with dozens wounded in the past 24 hours. Allawi clearly wants to flex his muscles and restore order to an increasingly chaotic country, thereby enhancing his own chances of staying in power. But as rebel attacks spread to virtually every Sunni and Shia town, it is unclear if such a move, possible only with American military backing, would mark the threshold he has been striving for in establishing the credibility of his government or signal the beginning of the end of it.
