|
Below is an alphabetical guide to
Iraqi groups
involved in the opposition to Saddam Hussein. Readers who wish to
provide further details or point out any errors are invited
to contact us by email.
Amal Islamic Organisation
Website: www.amalislami.org
Assyrian Democratic Movement
Website: www.zowaa.com; www.zowaa.org
Assyrian National
Congress
An umbrella group based in
California. It includes the Bet-Nahrain
Democratic Party, and Assyrian American Leadership
Council and others. Signed
a confederation agreement with the Free Officers' Movement
on 15 June 2002. Website: www.anca.us
Assyrian Patriotic Party APP
Website: www.atranaya.org
BetNahrain Democratic Party
An Assyrian organisation
belonging to the Assyrian National
Congress. It seeks an Autonomous
state for Assyrians in Bet-Nahrain (Iraq). Website: www.bndp.net
Chaldean Federation of America
Website: www.chaldeanfederation.com
Constitutional
Monarchy Movement
Favours a constitutional
monarchy within a democratic political system. Affiliated to
the INC. Based in London, its
leader is Sharif
Ali bin al-Hussein. Website: www.iraqcmm.org
Democratic Centrist
Tendency
An American-backed rival to
the INC. Secretary-general is Adnan
Pachachi; official
spokesman is Ghasan al-Atiyah.
Faili Kurds
Website: http://home.bip.net/faili.kurd
Free Iraqi Council
(FIC)
An offshoot of the Iraqi National Accord which claims to have been
involved in several failed coup attempts (including one which was
allegedly sabotaged by the CIA). Based in London and led by Sa'ad
Jabr.
Free
Officers Movement
Led by Brigadier-General
Najib al-Salihi. Its name is deliberately
reminiscent of the
officers' movement behind the Nasser revolution in Egypt. Signed
a confederation agreement with the Assyrian National Congress on 15 June
2002.
Group of
Four
Not an organisation as such,
but a group consisting of the PUK,
KDP, INA
and SCIRI which began meeting
informally, outside the framework of the INC, in 2001.
Iraqi
Communist Party (ICP)
Established in 1934,
it is well organised and is thought to have support inside Iraq.
Based in Iraqi Kurdistan and London. Leader is Aziz Muhammad.
Secretary of Central Committee is Hamid Majid Mousa.
Website: http://www.iraqcp.org.
Iraqi Democratic Union
Website:
www.idu.net
Iraqi
National Accord (al-Wifaq/INA)
Made up mainly of defectors
from the Iraqi armed forces and intelligence services.
Created by Saudi intelligence in 1990, it was reorganised in
1996 by the CIA, which saw it as the ideal vehicle for
fomenting a coup. Infiltrated by Saddam Hussein's agents,
its networks inside Iraq were smashed in 1996. It is also
said to have links to British intelligence. Based in Jordan
and led
by Ayad Alawi.
See the INA's charter.
Website: www.wifaq.com.
Iraqi National Coalition
Seeks to replace Saddam
Hussein with a democratic, pluralist and federal system of
government. See statement
of principles. Its military arm is the Military
Alliance. Website: www.eatlaf.com.
Iraqi National
Congress
(INC)
An umbrella organisation, nominally embracing all major opposition
groups - though it is plagued by internal divisions and many view it as a vehicle for the ambitions of
its leader, Dr Ahmad Chalabi. Founded in 1992,
it is based in
London. One attempt by the INC to remove Saddam Hussein (with CIA support) failed in 1995.
In 1996, Saddam’s troops and their Kurdish allies attacked INC bases in
northern Iraq, killing 200 supporters and forcing thousands to flee. The
1998 Iraq
Liberation Act in the US institutionalised the INC as
the main vehicle for American duning of political change in Iraq. See: INC
website,
press
releases, al-Mu'tamar
(the INC's weekly newspaper). Further notes on the INC: Medea.
Iraqi National
Forces An alliance of opposition groups
whose formation was reported by al-Zaman newspaper on 25
June 2002. Its aim is to overthrow Saddam Hussein without
foreign interventions. It reportedly includes: the Iraqi Communist Party, the
Islamic Dawa party, the Arab
Socialist Ba'ath Party ( Iraq Command), the
Group of Mujahedin Ulema in Iraq, the Islamic Action Party, the Iraqi
Democratic Grouping, the Kurdistan Communist Party, the Socialist Party in
Iraq, the Turkomen Democratic Party, the Arab Socialist Movement, the
Islamic Union for Iraq's Turkomen, and the Assyrian Ethnic Organisation,
plus unnamed independent political and military figures.
Iraqi National Front Websites: www.iraqinf.com;
www.iraqinat.com
Iraqi National Movement
Formed through a merger of two other groups,
it claims to include
prominent Sunni and Shia Arabs with a particular emphasis
on the central provinces. Leaders include Mudhar Shawkat and
Hatem Mukhlis. Said to receive several hundred thousand
dollars from the US State Department every three months
(Washington Post, 13 May 2002).
Iraqi National Party
Website: www.al-watany.com
Iraqi Turkman
Front
Website: www.turkmencephesi.org
Islamic
Dawa Party (IDP)
An old Shi'a Islamist
organisation.Its official website is www.daawaparty.com.
A rival website, www.islamicdawaparty.org,
belongs to a small breakaway group.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
One of the two main Kurdish
parties, dating back to 1946, with a military presence in
northern Iraq. In 1996 it collaborated with the Iraqi army in an attempt to destroy its Kurdish rival, the PUK,
but the two groups are at present cohabiting. Its leader is Mas'ud
Barzani. See main
KDP website, also sites for KDP in Iran,
Iraq,
Lebanon
and Syria.
Further notes on the KDP: Medea.
Kurdistan Islamic Union
Website: http://kurdiu.org/
Kurdistan Toiler's Party
Website: www.ktp.nu
Military Alliance
(MAINC)
Established in March 1999 as
the military wing of the Iraqi
National Coalition. Led by Tawfiq al-Yasiri, it seeks to work with officers
in exile as well as noncommissioned officers and soldiers in
Iraq. Its general outlook is that the military should stay
out of Iraqi politics after Saddam Hussein has been
removed. In July 2002 it held a three-day meeting in London
(see media
reports) which resulted in the election of an unnamed 15-man
committee and agreement on a Military
Covenant of Honour.
Movement of Sacred National Defence
Website: www.altahaddi.net
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
The other main Kurdish
party, which broke away from the KDP in 1975. The two rivals
fought a war in
1996, when the KDP invited in Iraqi forces in an attempt to
eliminate the PUK. The PUK and KDP are currently cohabiting,
though whether they will continue to do so remains to be
seen. Like the KDP, the PUK is established on the ground in
northern Iraq and claims some 4,000 men under arms. Its
leader is Jalal Talabani. See
main PUK website,
also PUK sites in: Australia,
France, Germany,
Russia. Further notes on
the PUK: Medea.
Socialist Party of Kurdistan
Website: http://members.aol.com/kurdis6065/Psk.html
Supreme
Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)
The main vehicle for Shi'a
opposition to Saddam Hussein, with cells operating secretly
in southern Iraq. Receives funding from Iran - which makes
the US wary of it. Led by Mohammed Baqr Hakim.
Also known as the Supreme
Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI). See website;
and http://sciri.org/
Turkmen People Party
See founding
statement. Website: www.angelfire.com/tn/halk
Worker Communist Party of Iraq
Website: www.wpiraq.org
|
|
AFTER
SADDAM?
Establishing
a democratic system in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
would be far from easy because of the country's
religious and ethnic mix.
Ethnically, Iraq
is about 75% Arab and 20% Kurdish, with other minorities
accounting for 5% (see special pages on the Assyrians
and the Turkomans).
In religious terms,
Shi'a Muslims are the majority (about 65%), followed
by Sunni
Muslims (32%) and Christians (3%).
THE SHI'A
The simplest kind of
electoral system would give the Shi'a a permanent
majority in government. This would worry the Sunnis,
who would probably demand some form of power-sharing
to protect their interests.
Under Saddam, Iraq has
been ruled by the Sunni minority, with the Shi'a
marginalised and sometimes brutally suppressed.
Religious differences have been played down in the
Iraqi media, though a change of regime could
easily bring them to the fore.
The US regards the
Iraqi Shi'a with suspicion because of their religious
affinity with Iran and would probably not allow them
to take control in Iraq. The links with Iran may be
exaggerated, however, and it would be wrong to assume
that all Iraqi Shi'a are religious militants or
supporters of Iran (see doument: Declaration
of the Shia of Iraq).
THE KURDS
The Kurdish population,
which is mainly in northern Iraq, stretches
over borders into Turkey and Iran, with
smaller numbers in Syria and former Soviet republics.
Altogether, the Kurds number
about 25 million and form the
world's most important ethnic group without a state.
Many seek to establish an independent state known as
Kurdistan.
Since 1991, because of sanctions and the no-fly
zone over their lands, they have acquired a lot of
autonomy in northern Iraq. The overthrow of Saddam
would jeopardise this achievement because a new regime
in Baghdad might attempt to re-assert control over the
whole country.
For this reason, the
main Kurdish opposition parties are luke-warm about
supporting American efforts to remove Saddam.
If the Kurds succeeded
in breaking away from Iraq, one effect would be to
tilt the religious balance even more strongly in
favour of the Shi'a, since the vast majority of Kurds
in Iraq are Sunnis.
A new government in
Baghdad would therefore have to handle the Kurdish
issue with great sensitivity.
See Arab Gateway's
special page on the
Kurds.
OPPOSITION GROUPS
There are numerous
opposition groups outside Iraq, many of them based in
London. Some are almost as hostile towards each other
as they are towards Saddam Hussein.
Many have little or no
support inside Iraq and are widely regarded as tools
of American foreign policy. Most of their leaders have
not lived in Iraq for many years and some have been
disparagingly described as "Rolex
revolutionaries".
There are also about
1,500 former Iraqi military officers in exile who
could contribute to the overthrow of Saddam, but it is
debatable how many of them left Iraq for political
reasons.
Many, if not all, of
these defecting officers are likely to have been
involved at some time in carrying out atrocities on
behalf of the regime. For more on the Iraqi opposition
groups see article by Fred
Aprim.
NEIGHBOURS
Whatever views the US
may have on the shape of a post-Saddam government,
four of Iraq's
neighbours - Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran -
regard the outcome as a matter of national concern and
would like to exercise some influence.
THE IRAQ
LIBERATION ACT
In the early 1990s the
US spent more than $100 million trying -
unsuccessfully - to undermine the Iraqi regime. In
1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Iraq
Liberation Act which allocated up to $97 million for
training and equipping opposition groups.
Seven groups were
chosen to receive American support under the Act: the
INC, INA, CMM, SCIRI, PUK, KDP and the Islamic
Movement of Kurdistan. Only three of these - SCIRI,
PUK and KDP - have a significant following inside
Iraq.
More information on
the Iraq Liberation Act: Medea,
Time
Magazine (30 November, 1998).
|
|