Whoa.
I'll be the first to admit that even if Al Shar followers all put down their guns and pick up their ballots that it won't end the attacks by any means. There would still be alot of forgein fighters in Iraq looking to kill westrens and the Iraqis working with them.Al-Sadr Calls on Militia to End Uprising
By KIM HOUSEGO
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his followers across Iraq on Monday to end their uprising against U.S. and Iraqi forces while he considers forming a political movement, senior al-Sadr officials said Monday.
If al-Sadr follows through, and he has backed away from other commitments in the past, it could signal a major victory for the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, removing a thorn in its side and potentially bringing many of the poor Shiites that follow al-Sadr into the political process.
Meanwhile, a French journalist being held hostage along with a colleague in Iraq called on French President Jacques Chirac to give in to militants' demand to rescind a headscarf ban to save their lives, according to a video shown on the Al-Jazeera television station.
Al-Sadr's announcement came as Iraq's vital oil exports ground to a halt Monday following a rash of pipeline attacks, costing the country tens of millions of dollars a day in desperately needed reconstruction revenue, oil officials and a regional governor said.
Sheik Ali Smeisim, a political adviser to al-Sadr, announced the cease-fire call in the holy city of Najaf, calling on militants to ``stop firing until the announcement of the political program adopted by the Sadrist movement.''
In addition, he called for U.S. and Iraqi troops to pull out of the center of Iraqi cities, though that did not appear to be a condition for the unilateral cease-fire. Asked if the cease-fire will take effect immediately, Smeisim said: ``I hope so.''
Fiercely opposed to a continued U.S. presence in Iraq, al-Sadr had dealt the biggest challenge yet to Allawi's two-month-old government - which he has denounced as an American puppet - leading a three-week uprising in the holy city of Najaf that ended with a peace deal last week.
The Najaf violence, however, had spread to other Shiite communities in Iraq, and al-Sadr's aides and Iraqi government officials met in Baghdad on Monday to try to negotiate an end to the violence that has wracked the slum of Sadr City.
The government has repeatedly called on al-Sadr to disband his militia and join politics; Al-Sadr had refused. His aides made no mention Monday of whether he would dissolve the militia, but for the first time said he was preparing to enter politics.
``This latest initiative shows that we want stability and security in this country by ending all confrontation in all parts of Iraq,'' said Sheik Raed al-Khadami, al-Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad. ``Al-Sadr's office in Najaf will issue a call within the next two days to join the political process.''
Such a move would help bring legitimacy to elections scheduled for January, though the government is still trying to cope with a 16-month-old Sunni insurgency.
In an interview Monday with Al-Arabiya television, Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, reiterated that al-Sadr must disband his militia.
``Building democracy in Iraq can not happen while armed militias exist in Iraq,'' he said.
Al-Sadr visited the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf for the first time since his militia left the holy site Friday after using it as a refuge during the fighting, according to the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, who now holds the keys to the site.
Also Monday, the U.S. military announced that a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. military convoy just outside Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two others. As of Friday, 968 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Meanwhile, officials said Monday that oil exports from the south - which account for 90 percent of Iraq's exports - had stopped completely.
Two senior officials from the state-run South Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity that attacks in the southern Rumeila oil fields Sunday immediately shut down the Zubayr 1 pumping station, forcing officials to use reserves from storage tanks to keep exports flowing for several hours. The reserves ran out late Sunday, they said.
Basra Gov. Hassan al-Rashid, when asked to confirm whether oil exports had halted, said: ``Yes, they are stopped.''
On Monday night, an Associated Press reporter visited the South Oil Co. headquarters in Basra, where officials said that no oil at all had been pumped for export Monday.
Iraq's other export avenue, a northern pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, also carried no oil Monday, according to an oil official in Ceyhan.
Allawi condemned the pipeline sabotage, saying it was making ordinary Iraqis suffer.
``This is causing a great loss for the Iraqi people in terms of revenues, which could be used in the reconstruction of the country and to pay the people and get the economy back on track again,'' Allawi said in an interview with CNN aired Monday.
Al-Rashid said the country was losing US$70 million a day because of the oil attacks.
``A number of saboteurs and terrorists who are spread across Iraq are behind these operations, and they are taking advantage of the lack of security in order to destroy the country's economy,'' he said.
Officials have made securing the pipelines and the other oil infrastructure a priority. The Oil Ministry has created an armed Oil Infrastructure Police, and Iraqi officials have said they plan to mobilize up to 20,000 people to police the pipelines.
But with about 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) of pipelines crisscrossing the country, they concede there are many places for saboteurs to strike.
``Those pipelines are very long and very vulnerable,'' a U.S. diplomat in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity, adding that it was not clear who was responsible for the latest wave of attacks.
Before the attack, Iraq's exports from the south were about 600,000 barrels a day - a third the normal average of 1.8 million barrels a day due to a separate string of attacks early last week. The pipelines were still ablaze Monday, the official said.
Al-Sadr's aide Smeisim denounced the oil attacks as putting Iraq's future in jeopardy.
``This is a threat to the country's economy, a threat to the country's infrastructure,'' he said. ``We ask the brothers to please stop this.''
Meanwhile, France on Monday vowed not to give in to Iraqi militants who kidnapped two French journalists outside Baghdad in a bid to force Paris to scrap a controversial law banning Islamic head scarves in public schools.
The announcement came as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier flew to Cairo as part of a diplomatic drive to secure their release. The abduction of Christian Chesnot and George Malbruno was condemned by religious and political leaders throughout the Middle East.
In other developments:
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of the government's top official in charge of Shiite religious affairs, Sheik Hassan Baraka al-Shami, wounding two of his bodyguards, his spokesman said.
North of the capital, assailants shot and seriously wounded a woman working as a translator for the U.S. military in the city, her husband, Amer Abdul-Karim said.
Associated Press Writer Abbas Fayadh contributed to this report from Basra.
08/30/04 17:53
However this is a great step forward to a stable and free Iraq, where the Iraqis do not need to be afraid to walk their own streets or attend their own mosque. I only hope this goes through.
