More Bad News from Iraq

Bismillah arrahman irraheem

A couple of days ago a number of employees at some ministry in Baghdad were kidnapped, apparently by Iraqi police who were able to pass through several American security checkpoints both before and after the kidnap.

Not for the first time I noticed a reticence, a coyness shall we say, on the part of western reporters to spell out the fact that Sunnis were in this case victims of Shia aggression. Al-Jazeera (Arabic) broadcast interviews with witnesses who plainly said that the kidnappers checked the ID documents of all the men and released those they identified as Shi'i, and took the Sunnis away. It was later reported, again on al-Jazeera, that they were taken to the al-Sadr district, which is a Shi'i area and home of the notorious Shi'i militants called, I think, the al-Sadr Brigade. BBC and ITV however only said that they separated the men from the women and took the men.

An update today on the BBC website, which says that although some of the kidnapped men have been released, there are fears that the remaining captives have been tortured and killed. Although it makes no mention of ethnicity in this case, it goes on to say that today in Baghdad gunmen entered a bakery in a mixed (Sunni/Shi'i) neighborhood and killed those present - the reporter helpfully explains that most bakers are Shi'i and Shi'i are often targetted by Sunnis.

This obvious bias really puzzles me as I don't see what purpose it serves.

For the record, dh was in the Iraqi army a couple of decades ago. His commanding officers were Shia and made his life a misery - not because dh is Sunni (though he is), but because he has a problem with authority and was always being sent to solitary confinement for insubordination. Being a private in the army isn't an ideal job for someone like that, but since dh refused to join the ba'ath party, his career choices were limited. His commanding officers, of course, were members of the party.

No doubt Saddam dealt harshly with Shi'i who stepped out of line - but the fact is he dealt harshly with EVERYONE who defied him.

It is always claimed that the Sunnis ruled Iraq - as if every Sunni person was more powerful and wealthy than every Shi'i, Kurd or Christian. The reality is that life was hard for everyone under Saddam. Certainly dh's family suffered a lot after the 1st gulf war, when sanctions were in place.

It is not my intention to deny the massacres carried out by Saddam - but it's not as simple as saying 'sunni bad, shia good'.

A very common refrain from all Iraqis - Sunni and Shi'i alike - when they comment on the present violence is "It was never like this before, we were all good neighbors to each other, we were all brothers of one another, we worked together and married each other, there was no difference between Sunni or Shi'i". If that's how it was when Saddam was in charge, when supposedly the Sunnis held all the power, why has it changed now?