Baghdad
|Reuters | Gulf News, 24-05-2003
A top Shiite
cleric warned the United States yesterday that it risked violent
confrontations with Iraqi citizens unless it improved its understanding
of how Iraqi society works.
The Americans lack knowledge of the people whose country they will be
occupying for some years, Sayyed Fateh Kashef Al Ghata, the
representative of the top Shiite theology college (Al Hawza) in Baghdad,
said in an interview.
"If they continue to misunderstand our reality, the result will be
bad for America first and bad for my people second," Kashef Al
Ghatta said.
He said Iraqis had hailed the U.S.-led invasion to end Saddam Hussain's
autocratic rule, but were angered by the United Nations resolution that
gave Washington and London – not the Iraqis – the mandate to run
Iraq and control its wealth.
"America wants to control Iraq and seeks to make it America's
regional policeman," said Kashef Al Ghata, a renowned cleric who
belongs to one of the most important families in the holy city of Najaf.
"In 2003, we have no choice yet but to confront the occupation
through peaceful means...But I am saying yet, because we are waiting to
see how the occupation will behave," he said.
"I really hope the occupying powers will not force the Iraqi people
to resort to violence, and that could be achieved through understanding
and respecting the Iraqi political, social, religious and economic
reality," said the cleric, wearing a white turban and long black
cloak.
The Hawza is the highest religious authority for Iraq's Shi'ite
majority.
Kashef Al Ghata did not say what the U.S.-led administration was doing
wrong, but noted the importance of finding a balance between Iraq's
different ethnic and religious groups.
Since the fall of Saddam's government American troops occupying much of
Iraq have faced widespread looting but no organised opposition.
Yesterday, the U.S.-led administration disbanded the Iraqi armed forces
and several security bodies and said it would build a new army from
scratch.
Kashef Al Ghata said the United States should not be worried about the
possibility that the Shiites would try to transform the secular country
into an Iran-style state.
"We do not seek an Islamic state in Iraq, and whoever says this
doesn't understand politics. We would have wanted to set up an Islamic
state in 1980 but not in 2003."
