Sadrists vow to keep the Mahdi Army
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The Sadrist movement said it will not disarm and disband the Mahdi Army unless senior Shia clerics order it two weeks after the Iraqi government said political parties with militias could not participate in the upcoming provincial elections.
"The Mahdi army will not allow anyone to disarm it and al Sadr could not disarm the Mahdi Army except if top Shiite clerics gave directives to do that," Basem al Marwani, a senior leader in the Sadrist movement in Najaf told Al Hayat. Marwani also said the Mahdi Army would "continue its armed resistance against the foreign occupation" despite the ceasefire ordered by Muqtada al Sadr in late February.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the senior most Shia cleric in Iraq, has already said it was Sadr's responsibility to disband the Mahdi Army, as he was responsible for forming the militia. Sistani said the militia should be disbanded as the law is the only authority in the country.
Only Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda hit the army and state Head of Badr organization
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Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 17 /04 /2008 Time 10:10:38 |
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Baghdad, Apr 15, (VOI) The head of Badr organization, affiliated with the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC Shiite political entity), stressed on Wednesday the necessity that the Sadr movement dissolves "Mahdi Army militias," if it wants to participate in the political process, saying that only the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda "carried weapons" against the state and army. "No side raised weapons in the face of the state and government, other than the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda," Hadi al-Amiri, lawmaker of the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC parliamentary bloc headed by SIIC), said in a press interview with 'Asharq Alawsat' international daily, the Saudi issue. He clarified, "The Sadr movement should announce that it has no armed militia, and should clearly say: If you arrest any Sadr movement's personnel who carries a weapon illegally, then detain him, and that's what we did," in Badr Organization. Badr Organization represented the armed wing of the SIIC, before it became a disarmed organization that participated in the parliamentary elections that took place in Iraq at the end of 2005, as part of the UIC's slate, to win a number of parliamentary seats. "It is not possible to participate in the political process on the one hand, and carry weapons in the face of the government, and disturb the security and political process, on the other hand," al-Amiri proceeded. He asserted "For five years, there have been no parties that illegally carry weapons, other than the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda." He referred that some of his organization's elements "joined security forces, according to a governmental decree, others retired or joined civil institutions." "Currently, we are not a military force at all," al-Amiri said. Concerning the statement of the Sadr movement's leader, Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands the Mahdi Army, that attributed the issue of dissolving Mahdi Army to the religious clergies, al-Amiri said, "The religious clergy was not consulted when the Mahdi Army was formed, and the clergy did not form this army, in fact it stresses the importance of limiting guns to the government's hand, and this is a clear demand to dissolve all illegal armed militias." Al-Amiri denied that "any political component or Iraqi party currently has an armed militia, excluding the Sadr movement." He mentioned that dissolving the Mahdi Army "does not mean punishing its members or arresting them, but they should join the political process as a party or political organization, not an armed militia." MH/SR |
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