Former prime minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that sectarian politicians and their militias were imposing a new "terrorism" on Iraq that is tougher to tackle than insurgent bombings. "Now the new form of terrorism is different to the first form of terrorism. It is ideological, political and sectarian terror in Iraq," he told Reuters in an interview. "We can confront and eradicate the first one but the second one is the danger that has started and hit our society."
Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders are struggling to break a four-month deadlock over the formation of a national unity government they hope will avert a civil war. But Allawi, a secular Shiite, said it will take more than a political breakthrough to save the country from sinking deeper into bloody chaos, and politicians have no clear policies or plans to ease sectarian strife and disband militias. "The problem is with the programme. We need people who say 'We don't believe in militias and sectarian quotas but believe in building government institutions and moving the economy.'" That won't be easy. Many Iraqi political parties are linked to militias who Iraqis say torture and kill with impunity. |