The "new" coalition government in Iraq looks the same, only more sectarian, suggests Nermeen Al-Mufti Will the quadripartite coalition that brought together the Higher Islamic Council of Iraq, Al-Daawa Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) put the country back on track? Sceptics note that most of the governments formed in Iraq since the occupation were led by those same groups, so what else is new? Apart from those who form the new coalition, few in Iraq seem optimistic. Some officials from the Shia community, even from Al-Daawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, lashed out at the new coalition. Iyad Allawi, whose Iraqi List withdrew from Al-Maliki's government, is sceptical. Allawi was excluded -- by an Iranian veto -- from the consultations of key Iraqi parties. He told The Washington Post that the current Iraqi government was doomed despite the "cosmetic" measures now taking place. Allawi said that reconciliation cannot take place under Al-Maliki's "sectarian" regime, calling for a state of emergency to be declared in Baghdad and other turbulent areas. Izzat Al-Shabandar, a parliamentarian for the Iraqi List, said that "the quadripartite coalition that was formed last week is a pre-emptive measure aiming to undermine efforts to form a non-sectarian government." Within Al-Daawa, supporters of Ibrahim Al-Jaafari failed to endorse the new coalition. Only Al-Maliki's supporters within Al-Daawa back the coalition, an associate of Al-Jaafari said. Mazin Makkeya of Al-Daawa (Tanzim Al-Iraq) said that the new coalition is "sectarian and racist." Nadim Al-Jaber, secretary-general of Al-Fadila, said that the quadripartite coalition was "stillborn and cannot achieve the goals it has set for itself". Other Iraqi parties will be trying to "create a counter-coalition," he added. "Kurdish parties signed this agreement because they want the central government to remain weak. That's what the Kurds want. The failure to include the Islamic Party in the coalition makes the coalition sectarian and racist�" Al-Jaber noted. The Iraq Turkmen Front issued a statement saying that "the parties to the coalition are part of Iraq's problem, part of the stifling political crisis. So they cannot be part of the solution." The Sadr Group, which was excluded from the consultations that led to the coalition, is now seeking to form a rival coalition, said parliamentarian Nasser Al-Saeidi. Omar Abdel-Sattar, parliamentarian for the Sunni Accordance Front and a key figure of the Islamic Party, noted that the party stayed away from the coalition because of its sectarian nature. "We were opposed to joining the coalition because the formation of such fronts wouldn't resolve the crisis but only exacerbate sectarian and factional divisions. The quadripartite agreement would keep in government the same people who failed to offer the Iraqis anything of substance," Abdel-Sattar said. He predicted that more rival coalitions and fronts would be formed, noting that "efforts are underway to reconcile the Accordance Front, the Iraqi List, Al-Fadila Party, and the Sadr Group." Abdel-Sattar noted that the Islamic Party is keeping an equal distance from all political parties and not inclined to take part in any new front. Tarek Al-Hashimi, Iraq's vice-president and secretary of the Islamic Party, has met with the leaders of the quadripartite coalition. A source close to Al-Hashimi said that attempts were made to persuade Al-Hashimi to withdraw from the Sunni Alliance Front, but he refused. Salim Abdallah, parliamentarian and spokesman of the Islamic Party's Political Bureau, told reporters that the Islamic Party received no invitation to meet with the leaders of the quadripartite coalition, but Al-Hashimi attended the meeting at the last minute. The meeting "focused on finding a new way of collective decision making and looked into government performance, security reform, and the matter of the detainees," Abdallah added. Top Shia cleric Ayatollah Al-Sistani is now a fierce critic of Al-Maliki. A source close to Al-Sistani said that the cleric was "very disappointed with the government performance and with the parliament, especially with those politicians who used his support as a stepping stone for key political posts in the government and who control decision making in parliament." The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Al-Sistani told his aides that certain politicians "used my name to control the government and the parliament" and proceeded to drive the country into disaster. Al-Sistani was quoted as saying that they "filled my face with pus" the same words Imam Ali, the fourth caliph, used in reference to his opponents. President Bush criticised Al-Maliki in his weekly speech, noting that the Iraqi government failed to do its job. US Ambassador Ryan Crocker also maintained that "the Kurdish-Shia coalition couldn't resolve Iraq's problem on its own." Dr. Jenan Ali, an expert in Iraqi politics, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "the quadripartite coalition is not a front of the moderates, as it is trying to present itself, but is an extremist sectarian and racist coalition with narrow partisan interests and special agendas." Ali added that "the Kurds are trying to impede the amendment of Article 140, a controversial article of the constitution that would allow them to annex Kirkuk and control 17 percent of Iraqi oil revenue." The Shia parties that joined the coalition are not representative of all Shia and their only purpose is to keep Al-Maliki in government at any price, she added. Meanwhile, living conditions continue to deteriorate in Iraq. The recent bombings in Singar, which killed 500 of the Yazidi community, cast a shadow on the country. Commentator Talal Barakat wrote that "before levelling accusations, it is necessary to investigate properly and to ask ourselves: who benefits from such incidents?" Iraqi satellite channels repeatedly aired a video of a visit by vice-presidents Al-Hashimi and Adel Abdel-Mahdi to a detention centre run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The report shows hundreds of detainees in narrow metal cages covered with white plastic sheets. Most of the detainees said that they hadn't appeared in court. Among the detainees was a crippled man arrested for being a "terrorist sniper." Another was an elderly man, who could barely talk, also detained for being a "terrorist." A man was shown weeping as he recalled the killing of his four sons in front of his eyes prior to his detention on charges of "terrorism." Tens of thousands of detainees are believe to be held in detention centres operated by the interior and defence ministries and the government of the north. According to unofficial reports, Iraq has 48,000 detainees at present. But the Interior Ministry only admits to 3,200 detainees. The failure to release the detainees was the reason the ministers of the Sunni Alliance Front resigned from the government. Vice-President Al-Hashimi promised the detainees that he would seek their release, noting that more than 200 detainees had been released so far. Al-Hashimi described the detention as "disgraceful for all of us." And yet he told the detainees that "people outside are not doing better than you. You're lucky, at least you have security here. People outside are afraid for their lives." Reuters quoted Brigadier General Gomaah Zamer, the warden of the detention centre appearing in the video saying that the centre, which held 2,279 inmates, was opened a month ago to relieve the pressure on other crowded prisons across the country.
