Deadline for disarmament extended

The US military in Iraq announced over the weekend that the deadline for weapons to be handed in would be extended and anyone caught with a weapon and without a permit would be jailed, in an effort to improve security in the volatile nation. On the streets of Baghdad, there were mixed views on whether this process should take place. For Neza Teba Selman, a college professor, people should obey the call by the US-led coalition forces for all armed people to lay down their weapons. “It’s better for people not to carry weapons, because we hope the security will get better,” she told IRIN. “I’m afraid people will start carrying weapons to the college, which is being protected by the US Army or Iraq police.” Her colleague Asam Kadum, a sports teacher, vigorously disagreed. There’s no way for people to protect themselves in such a bad security environment, he said. In fact, the security situation was so bad, he believed responsibility for law and order should be taken away from US-led coalition forces and given to the newly appointed interim minister of the interior. “Either the US Army controls the security better, or make them hand it to the minister of interior,” Kadum told IRIN. “The interior ministry is better because all of the officers there understand what’s going on in the streets and the US troops do not,” he added. The US-led coalition in Iraq want the militias to disarm, especially the Badr Brigade, a group loyal to Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was killed in a car bomb attack at a holy site in Najaf, south of Baghdad, two weeks ago. But the Badr Brigade is not going to disarm, even though it does not want to fight coalition troops, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the ayatollah’s brother, said on Friday. Members of the Badr Brigade have been out in force since the car bomb attack, which also wounded more than 50 people. In demonstrations in Baghdad, men with guns direct traffic and stand at strategic intersections. "US-led coalition forces also said the group could patrol the Najaf holy site and areas around it," Asaid Noura Asafi, a Badr Brigade spokesman, told IRIN in Baghdad. Various coalition spokespeople have said all militia groups must disarm by Saturday. Another popular Shia cleric is also thought to have up to one million people willing to take up arms for him, and several political parties have army wings. Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, told journalists on Friday: “I have told (the Badr Brigade) to stand with the Iraq people to defend their interests. Because we’re in a dangerous time, I tell them to play a big role in keeping security in Iraq.” Some members of the public remain skeptical about the newly trained Iraq police force. "They can’t do the job on their own," Kadum said, adding that a police station near his house was attacked three times and that the police were not able to arrest the attackers. “There must be force," he added, saying that Iraqis were longing for peace. That peace can only be achieved with help from people in the Badr Brigade, according to Asafi. "No-one in Najaf trusts the US military to protect them," he told IRIN. US military spokesman Guy Shields has said that US troops do not have a heavy presence in Najaf at the request of religious groups there. However, immediately following the bombing, Shields suggested that coalition forces increase their presence there. “Religious scholars all feel threatened now in Najaf,” Asafi said. “The US Army should protect these people by putting a tank in front of each house, but there are too many (people to protect),” he added. Instead, the governor of Najaf, who was appointed by Coalition forces, has picked 400 people to act as guards for the holy sites there, according to the spokesman. "Many of those men are Badr Brigade members, but they ’re acting as people chosen by the governor," he explained. The Iraqi Governing Council has reiterated its call for independent militias to lay down their arms. "So many police are being trained, there’s no need for independent militias," said Adnan Chalabi, acting president of the Iraq Governing Council, a temporary government body. “The police respect the laws, so we’ll train more than 25,000 of them in the first year,” Chalabi said recently. “Security is the task of Iraq, not militias or outsiders.”