Shiites demand separate southern Iraqi state

Last Update: Thursday, August 11, 2005. 9:24pm

The head of an Iranian-trained Shiite militia associated with one of the main parties in the Iraqi government says Shiites should have their own federal state in the south of Iraq.

"We have to persist in forming one region in the south or else we will regret it. What have we got from the central government except death?" he said.

The call for a southern Shiite state comes at a critical time when Iraqi leaders are scrambling to finish a draft constitution to submit to parliament before a self-imposed August 15 deadline.

Federalism is one of the most volatile issues in talks on the constitution, which the Shiite-led government and their US allies hope will defuse the insurgency.

"We must have federalism in the south in order to guarantee our rights, which enemies are trying try to prevent us from having," Mr Amiri said.

He was speaking to an emotional crowd commemorating the second anniversary of the death of revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, who along with 83 other people was killed by a car bomb in Najaf in 2003.

The Badr Brigades, former Iraqi army soldiers who turned against Saddam Hussein in the war with Iran in the 1980s, are hated by many Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam.

Some Sunni Iraqis accuse the Shiite-led Government of sanctioning Badr Brigades death squads, who work alongside police and security services. The Government and the militia deny the accusations.

Kurds have enjoyed a de facto state in the north since 1991, when American troops set up a no-fly zone to protect them from Saddam Hussein's army.

Sunnis favour a strong central government with tight control over oil resources in the Kurdish north and Shiite south.
-Reuters

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