from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0419war-main19.html

Sunnis stage Baghdad march

Takuro Yabe/Kyodo News

Thousands of Iraqi Muslims march through the streets of Baghdad after Friday prayers. Sunni Muslims, afraid of losing the prestige they had under Saddam Hussein, are pushing a Muslim nation undivided by Sunni and Shiite.

Demand unity with Shiite majority, call for U.S. to leave

Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post
Apr. 19, 2003 12:00 AM

BAGHDAD - Thousands of Sunni Muslims, uneasy at the prospect of losing their position in Iraqi society to the Shiite majority, staged their first show of force Friday since Saddam Hussein's government fell, marching through Baghdad to protest the U.S. military occupation and demand a Muslim state without distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

The impassioned demonstration would have been unthinkable under Saddam, who banned unsanctioned rallies. In any case, it would have been unnecessary; Saddam accorded disproportionate influence to his fellow Sunnis, who traditionally have held the upper hand in Iraq's official, economic and social life. In a new, post-Saddam Iraq, the marchers seemed to say, such cleavages should be set aside in favor of a nation unified around shared Islamic faith.

"No Sunni. No Shiite. Only one Islamic nation," proclaimed one painted-cloth banner. "Iraq must be ruled by its people," read another.

In the nine days since U.S. tanks took control of Baghdad, newly emboldened Shiites have engaged in public acts of religious expression that long were banned by the former leader to exert social control and promote his Baath Party's secular philosophy. The behavior of Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, has spurred intense concern among Sunnis and the even smaller Christian minority, who all fear they will be marginalized in a government that reflects the country's demographics.

Islamic government wanted

The protesters, led by a well-known Sunni scholar, began their march at one of Baghdad's largest Sunni mosques after Friday prayers. They called on U.S. troops to leave quickly and for a government based on Islamic laws. Although those demands appeared to reflect growing frustration with the pace of U.S. aid and reconstruction, they also were overtures to Shiite leaders, who have made similar requests, and an indication of how Islamic politics is starting to fill the political vacuum left by Saddam's downfall.

Among the signs carried by some of the 10,000 or so marchers were two claiming to represent the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic activist movement in the Arab world. It was the first time the Brotherhood, a Muslim revivalist group banned in Egypt and Syria, has appeared on the public stage in Iraq.

Shortly after the protest, Ahmed Chalabi, leader of a U.S.-backed group that opposed Saddam, predicted that an interim Iraqi government will take over most government functions from the U.S. military in "a matter of weeks rather than months." Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, did not specify how the interim government would be selected, but he said he will not be a candidate to lead the country.

Another top Saddam aide was taken into custody Friday by U.S. forces. Samir Abd Aziz Najim, Saddam's former chief of staff, was handed over to U.S. troops early Friday by Iraqi Kurds near the northern city of Mosul, a Central Command spokesman said in Doha, Qatar.

The fate of Saddam himself, remains a mystery. But an Arab television network on Friday aired what it said was videotaped footage of the former Iraqi leader being greeted by a cheering crowd on a Baghdad street on April 9, two days after he was targeted by a U.S. airstrike and the day his government evaporated. There was no independent confirmation of when the scene was filmed or whether the person was Saddam.

Pockets of resistance

U.S. forces continued to battle lingering pockets of resistance. The Army's 4th Infantry Division destroyed eight vehicles and captured more than 30 militia members in an attack Thursday night north of Baghdad, Central Command said.

Arab ministers meet

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the foreign ministers of six countries that border Iraq met for their first postwar summit. They concluded the meeting by urging that the U.S. military leave Iraq quickly. The ministers also criticized U.S. diplomatic pressure on Syria, which the Bush administration has accused of harboring fugitive members of Saddam's government and possessing chemical weapons.

In an opening address to the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Jordan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal said threats against Syria would "lead to a vicious cycle of wars and turmoil."

In Washington, FBI Director Robert Mueller said experts from his agency have been sent to Iraq to help find antiquities stolen during recent looting of Iraq's National Museum of antiquities and National Library. Interpol, the international police organization based in Lyon, France, said it also would send a team to Iraq to assist in the investigation.

Jaber Khalil Ibrahim, chairman of Iraq's Board of Antiquities, said curators still haven't taken a full count of the items damaged or carted off by looters. U.S. soldiers guarding the compound said a basement vault where many of the most valuable items were moved for safekeeping appeared not to have been breached, but Ibrahim said museum officials were waiting for power to be restored so they can examine the rooms with adequate lighting.

A Marine spokesman said American troops working with Iraqi engineers hope to turn on Baghdad's largest power plant today. Although some diesel-powered generating facilities have been restarted, the vast majority of the city remains without power.

Shiites get expressive

With the old system gone and uncharted political territory ahead, Shiites have begun expressing themselves in ways they could not before, holding large rallies for revered leaders and hoisting trademark green flags. Many Sunnis said those actions are the first step in a power grab that could leave them politically and socially marginalized.

As a consequence, Sunni leaders have been touting the concept of religious harmony, a subtle message aimed at winning over Shiites.

"We fear that sectarianism will be exploited by our enemies," Ahmed Kubeisi, a prominent Sunni cleric who had been a critic of Saddam, said in a sermon before the march. "Both Sunnis and Shiites should work for unity. We are all Muslims."

Kubeisi lashed out at both Saddam and Bush, criticizing the previous government as corrupt and the United States as interested only in Iraq's oil. He argued that U.S. troops should leave quickly and that Iraqis should be free to lead themselves.

"You are the masters today," Kubeisi said of the U.S. troops. "But I warn you against thinking of staying. Get out before we force you out."