Gunmen have killed six Bagh-dad councilors in the two weeks since the US occupation formally ended, sending a wave of fear through Iraq's grass-roots politicians.
"I am not sure if I can continue," a member of the council in Mansour, the capital's wealthiest suburb, said on Friday. He had been happy in a first interview to have his name used but changed his mind after Jinan Joseph, a fellow councilor, was gunned down in his own home the night before.
Unlike the frequent attacks on Iraqi police stations and the assassinations of a handful of senior politicians, the killings of councilors go largely unreported in the Baghdad media.
Yet they are the most vulnerable group in Iraqi society.
"Sixty-one of [the] roughly 750 councilors have been killed in the last year. That's about 8 percent," the anonymous councilor said.
Councilors had hoped that with the transfer of sovereignty they would gain a respite, but the rate of killing has increased. With the installation of a government, they now fear marginalization as well.
At a recent meeting of Mansour council, which has 20 men and two women members, the only visitors were a reporter and a group of US army officers responsible for security patrols.
The meeting started with a minute's silence for two of the slain councilors and an interpreter for the US captain who was shot as she left for work last week.
"What is our role now that there is an Iraqi government?" one councilor asked.
Ali Radhi, an engineer chosen by the various district councils to be Baghdad's mayor, recounted how he had approached a minister in the new government for extra finance for the capital.
"He told me, `Go to the Americans. They appointed you.'"
Another councilor said: "They tell us we are traitors because we are with the Americans, but they're the ones who were really appointed. We were elected."
Baghdad's system of government was one of the occupation authority's proudest creations.
In contrast to the centralized dictatorship of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, it was meant to bring government close to people and show Iraqis that even though there was not yet an elected national government, local bodies were already in action to help solve everyday problems.
To choose the councils, the occupation authority decided on a system of local caucuses, to be organized by the Research Triangle Institute, a private US company contracted by the US government.
Using public notices and radio announcements in the spring of last year, they advised citizens of an open meeting in every neighborhood.
The few who turned up chose batches of eight people for neighborhood councils. These then voted among themselves for members of the next tier, the 12 district councils. Others went on to the top tier, the Baghdad city council.
The US-backed authority supervised the process to prevent Baathists re-emerging, but their controlling hand and the fact that many of the councilors who attended the caucuses were already on the US payroll as guards, translators and subcontractors affected the councils' image.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
BEIJING FORUM: ‘So-called freedom of navigation advocated by certain countries outside the region challenges the norms of international relations,’ the minister said Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) yesterday denounced “hegemonic logic and acts of bullying” during remarks at a Beijing forum that were full of thinly veiled references to the US. Organizers said that about 1,800 representatives from 100 countries, including political, military and academic leaders, were in Beijing for the Xiangshan Forum. The three-day event comes as China presents itself as a mediator of fraught global issues including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Addressing attendees at the opening ceremony, Dong warned of “new threats and challenges” now facing world peace. “While the themes of the times — peace and development —
RSS