Iraqi people want resignation of Allawi’s government: Sadr

“The resignation of the Iraqi government appointed by the occupation (forces) is a popular demand. The people reject it, and I am therefore bound to reject it too, since I speak on their behalf ... and I am one of them,” the rebel cleric told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel.

Al Jazeera, which aired excerpts of the interview with Sadr, said the Shiite militia leader made his remarks before national security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie announced the breakdown of truce talks in the central holy city of Najaf.

Sadr said “the war on Najaf” had been launched because he had stood up for the Iraqi people’s rights, demanding the restoration of services, and because he had refused to take part in a national conference opening Sunday.

“Had I agreed to participate and not pressed for the people’s rights, they would not have done that, and they would not have targeted me and targeted the Shiites,” he said.

“But no -- I will never take up any post so long as the occupation is there. There can be no politics under occupation, no freedom under occupation, no democracy under occupation,” Sadr said.

“Let the occupation (forces) get out and ... the Iraqi people are capable of governing Iraq. There will be no civil war” as the United States claims there would be in the absence of multinational forces, he said.

More than a week of fighting between Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia and US-backed Iraqi forces had stopped on Friday to pave the way for the ill-fated truce talks in Najaf.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/August/focusoniraq_August148.xml§ion=focusoniraq

Demonstrators descend on Najaf as governor expresses hope for truce agreement in two days
By Todd Pitman, Associated Press, 8/14/2004 07:56

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) Thousands of demonstrators descended on Najaf to show their support Saturday for Shiite militants battling U.S. forces in the holy city as the provincial governor expressed optimism that the crisis would end within the next two days.

Iraqi officials and aides to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holding negotiations since U.S. forces on Friday suspended a major offensive against fighters from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, dug into Najaf's old city.

Al-Sadr seeks a U.S. withdrawal from Najaf and amnesty for all his fighters among other demands in exchange for disarming his followers and pulling them out of the revered Imam Ali shrine and Najaf's old city, where they have taken refuge, aides said.

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said Saturday that the negotiations, led by National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, ''have reached a delicate stage.''

The government has accepted some of al-Sadr's conditions and the negotiators are discussing others, he said.

''We hope that discussions will be ended within two days and all of the Najaf province will be under the control of the government,'' he said. ''Any agreement will include not only Najaf but the other provinces.''

U.S. officials were not involved in Friday's talks, he said.

The fighting between the militants and a combined U.S.-Iraqi force in Najaf, one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam, has posed a danger to the fledgling interim government. The violence has angered many of the country's majority Shiites, including those who do not normally support al-Sadr.

About 10,000 demonstrators, some in buses, others on foot, arrived in Najaf on Saturday to show their solidarity with the militants and act as human shields to protect the city.

Many of the demonstrators arrived from as far away as Baghdad, as well as the southern cities of Amarah and Nasiriyah, demanding the interim government's resignation and an end to the offensive here.

The U.S. military has estimated that hundreds of insurgents have been killed in the Najaf fighting since it began Aug. 5, but the militants dispute the figure. Six Americans have been killed, along with about 20 Iraqi officers, it said.

The violence in Najaf has spread to other Shiite communities across the country.

Intense clashes between Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi police in the city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed about 40 militants and three police, Capt. Hadi Hassan, a police spokesman, said Saturday.

U.S. warplanes bombed the largely Sunni city of Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, after insurgents barraged U.S. troops with mortars and clashes broke out.

The U.S. military said it had dropped a series of 500 pound bombs on ''known enemy locations'' near the city, in an operation called Cajun Mousetrap III, which began early Saturday.

Residents said jet fighters destroyed two houses that had been evacuated before the bombing began.

The military said about 50 militants were killed in the operation, but police Maj. Saadoun al-Dulaimi said 11 people, including 3 policemen, were killed and 36 were injured.

The U.S. military also announced Saturday that one Marine and one U.S. soldier were killed in separate incidents in the volatile Anbar Province. As of Friday, 930 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

Najaf fell mostly quiet Friday as both sides respected the cease-fire.

''We've seen no violations of the cease fire since 7:30 a.m. yesterday,'' Maj. Doug Ollivant said Saturday. ''That's good, it shows somebody has control over (the militants). We weren't sure before.''

While the negotiations wore on, al-Sadr, who has a long history of sending contradictory signals, addressed his followers inside the Imam Ali shrine late Friday, telling them to continue fighting and calling on the government to resign, saying it is ''worse than Saddam.''

''Maybe there is a truce for a day or two. Oh brothers in the rest of the provinces, continue your jihad, maybe it (the government) wants to silence the sound of truth so don't let it,'' he said.

Al-Sadr had a bandage one his hand, apparently to protect a small shrapnel wound his aides said he received Friday, before the cease-fire was declared.

Al-Zurufi, the governor, said the government had no plans to arrest al-Sadr or force him to leave the city.

''We have no such demands that al-Sadr or anybody else should leave Najaf. Only outlaws should leave,'' he said. ''We have no orders to arrest him.''

However, ''all militias should be disbanded and leave the city,'' he said.

An al-Sadr aide, Sheik Ali Smeisim, said al-Sadr wanted a U.S. withdrawal from Najaf, the freeing of all Mahdi Army fighters in detention and an amnesty for the militants, among other demands, in exchange for his disarming his followers and ending the fighting.

U.S. troops and Iraqi officials want to ensure that any new truce would eliminate the flaws of the previous agreements, including one that ended a two-month uprising in early June. The Mahdi Army militia repeatedly violated that cease-fire, shooting at police and burying caches of weapons in Najaf's vast cemetery and using the time to regroup, according to U.S. officials and witnesses.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped al-Sadr would respond ''in due course'' to charges placed against him by Iraqi authorities. An Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant for al-Sadr in connection with the death of a moderate Shiite leader, Abdul Majid al-Khoi, in April 2003. Al-Sadr denies any role in the murder.

Powell denounced al-Sadr and his militia as outlaws and said U.S. forces were ''squeezing'' Najaf in an effort to end the fighting, but reiterated that U.S. troops would not enter the holy shrine to push out the militants.

''We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque,'' Powell said. ''It's a very holy place for all Shia.''

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan was ''saddened by the violence that has broken out in Iraq, particularly the situation in the holy city of Najaf.''

Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has called on all sides to end the crisis quickly, was in stable condition at a hospital outside London on Friday following an angioplasty to unblock a coronary artery, his office said.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/227/world/Demonstrators_descend_on_Najaf:.shtml