Iraqi prime minister pushes for reform

This article first appeared on The Media Line.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for a truck bomb that killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 200 at a crowded market in Sadr City, a Shi’ite suburb of Baghdad. The attack came as Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is pushing for reforms that would streamline the government system as Islamic State continues to control about one-third of the country.

The violence in Iraq has intensified. Just last month, 1332 civilians, including civilian police, were killed and more than 2000 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict, according to the United Nations. A further 488 member so the Iraqi security forces also died in the fighting.

Prime Minister Al-Abadi announced he will streamline Iraq’s government, as part of an effort to cut government spending and crack down on corruption. The plan also eliminates several senior positions that had traditionally been divided according to religious and ethnic affiliation such as Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds. The Iraqi parliament unanimously approved the plan this week but there could be protests by minority groups.

“The Iraqi Prime Minister’s reform plan will probably strengthen Iraqi commercial and political networks, marginally improving state stability,” Meda Al Rowas, a senior analyst with HIS Country Risk told The Media Line. “It would mark the first step in renegotiating the Iraqi power-sharing plan in place since 2003.”

Abadi, a member of the majority Shi’ite group which represents 60-70 percent of the population, must ensure that Sunnis, who make up 20-30 percent still have a voice in the government. The Kurds, about ten percent, have a de facto separate state in northern Iraq.

“All of the things he’s trying to achieve, such as ending corruption and reducing government waste are noble goals and desperately needed,” Tim Easton, an expert on Iraq at Chatham House in London told The Media Line. “But they don’t address the fundamental problems in the system such as the patronage network that allows politicians to stay aloof from the people.”

This summer, like almost every summer, as temperatures climb above 120 degrees and the aging electricity grid is unable to handle the demand, there were street protests against the government. In the past, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki has sent troops to quell the protests. This year, Abadi seems more receptive to trying to solve the problem.

Perhaps the most serious challenge to Iraq’s stability in the past year has come from Islamic State, which now controls up to one-third of the country. In the face of Islamic State’s advance, many Iraqi soldiers fled, deserting their weapons. Many joined the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), in effect a Shi’ite militia.

“The spread of Islamic State gave the Shi’ite militias unprecedented power and legitimacy,” Donatella Rovera, a crisis analyst with Amnesty International who has spent most of the past year in Iraq told The Media Line. “Iraq has no functioning armed forces to speak of.”

The US, which had tens of thousands of troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, is trying to help rebuild the Iraqi army, helping train the allied Iraqi forces, who come from both the army and the PMU’s. So far these units have not been able to offer a serious threat to Islamic State.

These allied forces, backed by US air strikes, are trying to re-take Anbar province, and eventually move on to recapture Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Rivera says the international community has not done enough to help the Iraqi people.

“Millions of people were left under the control of the Islamic State with nobody to defend them,” she said. “Entire Sunni communities have been forced from the area. The Sunni population is being squeezed out of the north by the Kurds and out of the center by the Shi’ite militias. They have lost their homes and livelihoods and have nowhere to go.”