McGuinness urges Iraq to learn from N. Ireland's past

By Khalid al-Ansary
Reuters / July 6, 2008

BAGHDAD - Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and a former top IRA guerrilla, urged Iraqis yesterday to learn from the experience of his homeland, which suffered decades of sectarian conflict, then found peace.

McGuinness was addressing a conference on national reconciliation in Baghdad that brought together politicians from across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divide.

The participants, who included prominent Iraqi lawmakers and international mediators, issued a communiqué of principles at the end of the meeting that they said should be used to heal Iraq's divisions.

Among the recommendations are avoiding language that could inflame sectarian hatred, pursuing peaceful negotiations that do not allow the use of weapons by armed groups, and restricting guns to government forces. The communiqué also called for integrating Awakening Councils and other groups that have fought insurgents into Iraq's new institutions.

The meeting was part of a process that began at Tufts University's Institute for Global Leadership in 2006. It led to talks at Helsinki coordinated by Padraig O'Malley, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a fellow of the Institute for Global Leadership.

McGuinness is an Irish Catholic nationalist and a member of Sinn Fein, the political ally of the Irish Republic Army, which fought to expel British troops from Northern Ireland.

McGuinness, who had been a former commander in the IRA in the 1970s, was one of the top Sinn Fein politicians who sought a negotiated peace through a power-sharing agreement in 1998 with the pro-British Unionists.

"At that time, the Unionists wouldn't travel in the same airplane. . . . Now here we are, 10 years on, sitting down around a government table together." The IRA officially ended its armed campaign in 2005, after calls from Sinn Fein.

Yesterday's Iraqi conference, held at the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, brought together Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs as well as Kurds. Delegates from South Africa, including businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, who played a role in talks to end apartheid, also attended the conference in the heavily guarded Green Zone.

The Crisis Management Initiative of Finland, a nongovernmental group, was among the other organizations sponsoring the Helsinki talks. It is headed by former President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who has been active in talks involving divided communities in Kosovo and the Indonesian province of Aceh since his presidency ended.

Various power struggles are playing out in Iraq - the most recent an intra-Shi'ite battle pitting the Shi'ite-led government against the Mahdi army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The government has launched military operations against the militia and Sunni insurgent groups that have helped drive violence to a four-year low.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that the government has defeated terrorism in the country. Earlier this year, he launched the crackdowns to extend the authority of the government over areas in Baghdad and elsewhere that have largely been under the control of armed groups since the US-led invasion.

"They were intending to besiege Baghdad and control it. But thanks to the will of the tribes, security forces, army, and all Iraqis, we defeated them," Maliki said. He spoke at ceremonies marking the fifth anniversary of the 2003 assassination of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, a leading opponent of Saddam Hussein.

Many Iraqis say true reconciliation will take years to achieve, given the extent of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007 that killed tens of thousands of people and nearly tipped the country into full-scale civil war.

"The issue of reconciliation won't end in a conference. It is an ongoing issue that will take months, if not years," said Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.

Some members of the minority Sunni Arab community say they have wanted reconciliation but feel they are too weak to get a fair deal after being marginalized. "Reconciliation is sacred, but the government wants reconciliation on their stronger terms, which is oppressive," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni Arab parliamentarian.

In a positive sign, Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc has said it was close to rejoining the government after quitting nearly a year ago.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.