Bubbling tension in Basra
By James Hider
The Times
Baghdad
Petroleumworld.com 02 01 06
James
Hider, The Times correspondent in Baghdad, explains how the death
of
the 100th British soldier follows a sudden upsurge in violence
against
British troops in Basra
"In Basra
there is a supressed undercurrent of violence. Although there
are
far fewer car bombings than in Baghdad, there are daily reports
of
assassinations, kidnaps and murders by the militias.
"The
local population is simply terrified. I will never forget when
I asked
to speak to one man last summer and his hands started shaking
with fear. He
said he couldn't answer any questions - he had a wife and kids.
There is an
overriding atmosphere of fear.
"Its
not necessarily the British Army's fault. The British only have
8,000
troops in Basra and they could not use the American tactic of
tackling the
militias head-on. They could not afford to get into a showdown
with the
Shias
"Instead
they adopted a softly-softly approach, trying to win the battle
for
hearts and minds. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with hardcore
fundamentalist militias, winning hearts and minds isn't going
to cut it.
"Now
we have a situation where the Shia militias are purging the Sunni
population. Most of the Sunni professors have left Basra University.
The
militants are particularly going after men who were pilots in
the air force
during the Iran-Iraq war, which has given credence to allegations
that they
are Iranian backed.
"The
Shias are also fighting among themselves. After the war, when
the
British were building up the local police forces, they used political
parties in the process to vet new recruits. These tended to put
their own
militia members in control and the police are now heavily infiltrated
with
different factions engaged in a power struggle.
"The
major criticism is that the British trained the police to fire
guns but
they didn't teach them how to be loyal to the government over
their tribes
or militias. Now they have painted themselves into a corner where
it's very
difficult to go out and confront the problem.
"There
has also been a huge growth in Iranian-style morality police.
People
have been killed for listening to pop music. Buying alcohol is
like
arranging a drugs deal in America. You have to arrange a meeting
with one of
the sellers and then meet up in a dark alley somewhere and hand
over cash,
just for a six-pack of beer.
"The
situation had become so bad that last week the British forces
launched
a major raid and arrested 14 police officers who they suspected
of being
involved in political or financially-motivated murders. Of those
they
allowed nine to go free and kept five under arrest.
"These
were senior police officers in units at the centre of corruption,
in
particular the internal affairs unit. However, it also appears
that they had
close links to the local government.
"The
governor responded by saying that unless the five were released
he was
going to stop co-operating with the British. On Sunday there was
a huge
demonstration outside the British consulate in Basra. The protestors
were
chanting warnings to Blair and saying that they would use whatever
means
possible to release these five men.
"Since
then we have seen a spate of bombings in the British controlled
area
of the south. A Danish convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, an Italian
soldier
was wounded, there was a car bomb in Nasiriyah and the attack
on the British
patrol in the Maysan province yesterday.
"It looks
like the simmering tensions are coming up to the surface. The
British have made an uncharacteristically bold move in arresting
these five
men. These deaths may be retaliation.
"The
soldiers that I have been out with are all quite philosophical
about
it. They realise that 100 deaths is a lot but it's not the Sunni
Triangle
yet."
Times
Online January 31, 2006
Copyright
© 2006 Times. All rights reserved
