"Who killed Sheikh Saad?" the US army captain asks Sayed Malik, America's partner in the lawless Baghdad district of Dura.| Hey! This dude ---> looks like the dude in the green turban.. |
The US captains, both in their early 30s, nod an assent to Malik's recommendation that locals employ the blend of tribal and paramilitary justice that has evolved in this wild Baghdad suburb. "These guys operate like a mob, if they [insurgents] kill one of their's they have to take revenge, they have to. They kill the guy and everything will be fine, the vengeance stops," says Captain Doug Hoyt, charged with local governance for the 3rd Infantry Division in Dura. Here, the revenge killings and vigilante justice that Iraqi national leaders speak out against for fear of sparking a civil war are becoming a regular fact and have received at least a tacit nod from US troops. Hoyt says the Americans have had little choice in Dura where tribal traditions run deep and insurgents regularly blow up police stations, ambush convoys and murder people. "They call this the land of the dead. There are bombs, killers, and kidnappers," says Dura police chief Salem Zajay.
Hoyt hopes that with time, the US influence will promote the rule of law and strengthen Iraqi public institutions. But prominent Iraqis have warned that the American policy of cultivating tribal leaders can often undermine the democratic process. "It is not the direction we want to go ... It was the policy of Saddam," says Iraq's UN Ambassador Samir Sumaiydah, referring to the ousted Iraqi president.
By all accounts, Malik is close to both the Americans and the Mehdi Army, the Shiite fighting force that battled the US military until October when it agreed to a truce. For the US army, Malik is their enforcer who will make sure their public works projects get done and will deliver them solid information on the insurgency raging in Dura. In turn, officers award him contracts and if he comes under attack, by their own admission, they look the other way when he settles scores. The Americans compare the dynamics to that of the US mafia. "He's the godfather," Hoyt says.
On almost any project in Dura, Malik is receiving a cut. "Sayed Malik has a huge influence. We've given him tonnes of contracts. The 1-8 [First Cavalry Division] claims they made him a millionaire," Hoyt says, alluding to his predecessors, from whom he inherited his policies. The Americans have deliberately nurtured his image. When the 1st Cavalry Division would arrest someone, they would say that they would kill him if it were not for the fact that the man knew Sayed Malik, says Captain Joe Buccino. The officers believes such policies have provided intelligence and ultimately saved soldiers and civilians' lives.
Malik, who likes to point out his remarkable resemblance to actor Sean Connery, makes no bones about the fact local groups like the Mehdi Army, are now actively pursuing resistance fighters. "They help," he says. Malik wants a formal agreement with the Americans that would set up neighbourhood watches in Dura to kill insurgents plotting attacks. Meanwhile, Sadr officials also admit their militia is now chasing down insurgents. Sheikh Jassim Al Saaidie, head of the Sadr organisation's cultural wing, said the Mehdi Army had killed four "terrorists" and arrested "three others" in the past 10 days. "It is clear now that people from Sadr organisation are publicly hunting down the terrorists."
One US sergeant, on condition of anonymity, recounted an incident barely a month ago when a Shiite family kidnapped a fundamentalist Sunni cleric, Sheikh Nadha, from the Rahman Mosque in Dura. They blamed Nadha for killing a member of their family. "I don't think we'll be seeing him again," the sergeant said. "Basically, it's good as long as the bad guys are being taken care of."