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| Iraq |
| Allawi looking to regain prime ministry |
| 2005-12-12 |
| Iyad Allawi reckons he could be Iraq ‘s prime minister again after Thursday‘s election -- and this time, he says, it won‘t be Americans who put him there but, possibly, old enemies whose rebel towns he once ordered bombed. "They know I wasn‘t after them," he said in an interview, chuckling at the popularity his strongman image has lately won him in a town where a year ago he gave U.S. troops the go-ahead to crush a revolt by minority Sunni Arab guerrillas. Now, running on a broad, non-sectarian slate, the secular Shi‘ite said late on Saturday he is talking to representatives of the insurgents and winning them over with promises to address their grievances and pump money into battered towns like Falluja. "The others, of course, if they get me, they‘ll cut me into little pieces," he added, referring to the al Qaeda Islamists he vows to "fight from room to room" if his hopes are realized of returning to power at the head of a coalition government. Still troubled by wounds he sustained in an axe attack by Saddam Hussein ‘s agents in London in 1978, and after fleeing gunmen wielding machetes at a mosque a week ago, the 60-year-old neurologist knows plenty about the dangers of Iraqi politics. Undaunted, he said that has strengthened his resolve to fight al Qaeda "terrorists" and militias he said have been given free rein by the Shi‘ite Islamist- and Kurdish-led government. Eleven of his supporters have been killed and about 20 wounded in the past couple of weeks of campaigning, he said, leaving no doubt he blames pro-government militiamen. "The rules of politics in this region can be ... quite dangerous," he said. "But this really will increase our resolve." "To leave (Iraq) in the hands of militias to play around and to take the rule law into their own hands and inflict damage on the people of Iraq ... can only be dangerous." No opinion polls are available but anecdotal evidence suggests Allawi, long an ally of U.S. and British intelligence who returned from exile in London to lead the first, appointed government after the U.S. invasion, is picking up strong support. "We will have a fair chance," he said, if a visibly well- funded campaign can match or better the 40 seats he won in the 275-seat assembly in January -- a view of possible coalition deals shared by diplomats in the U.S.-led Coalition in Baghdad. "We think we are a balancing party...We do reflect various constituencies...We frankly enjoy with most of the groups quite good relationships," he said. "We can play a significant role." Allawi denies charges from his Islamist opponents, who can still expect to form the biggest single bloc in parliament, that the remedy he offers is a return to the days of brute force. "Dealing with insurgents is unlike dealing with terrorists -- with terrorists there is no way but force -- but insurgents, you have to use force, you have to use political gestures and you have to identify the causes," he said, recalling what he called successes in opening dialogue with Sunni rebels last year. "The most important is the economy. If people feel disenfranchised and they don‘t have salaries and they have families to look after then you need to address this issue. To resolve the insurgency is mostly about political gestures and dialogue. Then force comes in," said Allawi, who said he hopes to triple Iraq‘s oil output in four years to refloat the economy. Denying a report he shot prisoners while prime minister, a rumor he said offended his medical instincts, even if it enhanced his standing among some Iraqis sick of guerrilla violence, he said: "You need to be strong. But not in the sense of killing. Once you have decided, the most important thing is to implement decisions. This is what I see as strength." While open to dialogue, he said he would build up Iraq‘s army and intelligence services and crush any group that could not be negotiated with. He repeated his complaint that U.S. officials made a "major mistake" in disbanding Saddam‘s forces. "Saddam is finished," he said. "If you want to bring in a person like Bin Laden, we‘ll fight you room to room." When first appointed in 2004, he was widely viewed as an American agent and U.S. officials clearly like his non-sectarian rhetoric. He is keen to play down those past links, however. Asked how much of his conspicuously generous campaign funding was coming from Washington, he said with a hearty laugh: "This does not happen at all ... Not a single cent." His campaign was funded by Iraqi donations and helped by free services like printing and help from Arab entrepreneurs. He would raise the sore subject of widespread detentions of Sunnis by U.S. forces with American commanders, he said. And although he joins most Iraqi politicians in calling for U.S. troops to withdraw, he echoed the line from Washington that this can only happen as Iraqi forces become more capable. "It‘s premature ... to start listing dates," he said. "We need to have conditions met." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |