Anbar conflict may spread, warns Iraqi VP Al-Hashemi

DOHA: Iraq’s fugitive vice president warned that an armed standoff in Anbar province could spread to other parts of the country as Sunni opposition to Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki grows.
Stirred by a bloody raid to arrest a Sunni politician in the Anbar city of Ramadi, fighters of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and tribal allies took over Fallujah and parts of nearby Ramadi three weeks ago at a time of rising Sunni anger with the Shiite-led government.
Tarek Al-Hashemi, a Sunni sentenced to death in 2012 after an Iraqi court convicted him of running death squads while vice president, something he denies, has accused Al-Maliki of pursuing a political witch-hunt against his Sunni opponents.
“I’m not optimistic about the future ... I think this spark in Anbar will spread to other provinces,” Hashemi told Reuters in an interview this week in his Doha office guarded by Qatari security men.
“Al-Maliki is targeting Arab Sunnis (in Iraq) in different provinces, with the use of army forces, or handing them death sentences in a way that has never been seen before in Iraq’s modern history, and therefore it’s the right of these individuals to defend themselves in every way possible.”
On Sunday, Iraqi government forces battling ISIL militants intensified air strikes and artillery fire on Fallujah. The confrontation has displaced tens of thousands of residents.
Hashemi, who divides his time between Qatar and Turkey, appealed to outside countries for humanitarian aid to “support the victims.”
He said it would be “disastrous” if Al-Maliki, in power since 2006, could win a third term if voters choose him in a parliamentary elections set for April 30.
“Today, we are objecting to Al-Maliki not because he’s Shiite. It’s because of his flawed policy,” said Hashemi.
“Al-Maliki ... controls political decisions and the power to implement them and he also controls the judiciary system, stripping it of independence.”
In the latest high-profile raid, security forces detained prominent Sunni lawmaker Ahmed Al-Alwani, a supporter of anti-government protests, at his Anbar home last month, sparking the latest violence.
Hashemi said he longed to return to his homeland but did not feel safe to go back at this point. “There isn’t a single square meter in any (Sunni) governorate that’s safe for me to return to,” he said.