Issue of detainees in Iraq’s Mosul rallies tribal chiefs against government

 

By Munaim Sami

 

Azzaman, October 13, 2009

 

The latest government crackdown on Arab Sunni areas has raised concerns of whether national reconciliation would ever be possible.

 

More than two weeks ago, government troops detained several hundred people from predominantly Sunni towns particularly Mosul and Baaquba.

 

But most of the arrests were made in Mosul, where more than 200 people are reported to have been detained with their families still in the dark about their whereabouts.

 

Most of those detained are people of note, mainly merchants, businessmen and tribal leaders.

 

A group of most senior tribal chieftains and Mosul provincial council members have tried to pressure the central government to have them freed but to no avail.

 

Witnesses say those arrested have already been transferred to government jails in Baghdad but their exact whereabouts remain uncertain.

 

The arrests were made without judicial procedures and the government has not produced evidence of them being charged of any wrongdoing.

 

However, Mosul’s  army commander, Brigadier Jassem Jaafar, says: “The detainees are criminals from the former Baath regime and belong to al-Qaeda.”

 

But Jaafar has produce no evidence to back up his claims.

 

Tensions are high in Mosul, a city of nearly three million people, and some are venting their anger at the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.