From the Los Angeles Times

A no-reconciliation conference

Key Sunni and Shiite groups stage a boycott, derailing a meeting on bridging differences before it gets started.

By Said Rifai and Ned Parker
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

March 19, 2008

BAGHDAD — Influential Shiite and Sunni groups boycotted a conference on Iraqi reconciliation Tuesday, as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney traveled north to meet with Kurdish leaders.

Members of the main Sunni Arab parliament coalition, Tawafiq, refused to attend the two-day meeting because of complaints about the Shiite-dominated government.

Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's bloc walked out of the conference, saying it did not want a ceremonial presence. The same went for a contingent led by Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman, a representative of Sunni Muslim tribes that rose up against the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The boycott was symptomatic of the rifts and enmity among Iraqi parties, which are organized along ethnic and religious lines and have delayed progress in power sharing between the country's Shiite majority and the formerly ruling Sunnis.

"It is the Tawafiq bloc's opinion that current circumstances hinder the success of such conferences," parliament member Iyad Samarrai said.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government has dwindled since last summer to a core group of Shiite and Kurdish politicians. But the Shiite prime minister's relationship with the Kurds has become strained over matters such as Iraq's stalled oil legislation and the country's northern boundaries.

Maliki's detractors describe him as being hindered by an inner circle that does not like to share power and is fiercely sectarian. His supporters argue that he is trying to build a strong government and that other parties are standing in the way for selfish reasons.

One conference organizer, Saad Muttalibi, accused the Sunni bloc, also known as the Iraqi Accordance Front, of deliberately trying to sabotage Maliki.

"This is basically political. When they saw hundreds and hundreds attending the conference, Tawafiq immediately withdrew," Muttalibi said. "The message is they will not attend a conference that may lead to strengthening Maliki's government."

The organizer noted that Sunni tribes, which have revolted against Al Qaeda in Iraq, attended the conference. But one of their main leaders, Sheik Sulaiman, decided to lead his delegation out of the conference.

"I didn't stay any longer than it took me to smoke my cigarette. It was a total failure, because the Iraqi politicians are a failure," Sulaiman said.

Followers of Shiite cleric Sadr quit the meeting early, in protest of what they called its lack of substance.

"We don't want to attend some conference where just speeches are made, we want actual activities to be initiated between the political powers," said Sadr parliament bloc member Nassar Rubaie. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia was accused of fomenting sectarian violence before the anti-American cleric called a cease-fire in August.

Maliki told reporters he was committed to reconciliation.

"Perhaps we politicians are tied down by our partisan affiliations and political agendas, but this is not the case on the popular level," he said. "It is imperative that we all involve ourselves in the political process and not seclude ourselves. The politicians should learn their lesson from the Iraqi citizens."

He heralded the decline of sectarian violence, which many others say could erupt again.

Organizers said former military officers and ex-members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party attended the talks, which will conclude today.

Cheney, on the second day of a visit to Iraq, looked to push for resolution of the country's political woes as he headed to Kurdistan, where he met with the regional government's president, Massoud Barzani.

"We are certainly counting on President Barzani's leadership to help us conclude a new strategic relationship between the United States and Iraq as well as advance crucial pieces of national legislation in the months ahead," Cheney said before departing for Oman.

Barzani said, "We will continue to play our positive role, to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem."

Cheney's aides had told reporters on the way to Iraq that the vice president wanted to see progress on passing Iraq's oil law. The legislation is in limbo amid a fierce fight between Kurds and Arab nationalists about whether the measure would allow regional governments to sign their own contracts with foreign oil companies to develop fields.

Cheney and Barzani also discussed Turkey's ground and air assault in Iraq last month against Turkish Kurd rebels, known as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, who had used Iraqi Kurdistan as a sanctuary.

"We will be part of the solution for all the efforts inside of Iraq and out for the neighboring countries," Barzani said.

Meanwhile, bomb blasts in Baghdad and north of the capital killed at least eight Iraqis and injured dozens.

In the day's worst attack, a car bomb exploded outside an electronics store in the northern city of Mosul, described by the U.S. as the last urban stronghold of Sunni militants loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates. The blast destroyed the four-story building, killing three people and injuring 40, police and the U.S. military said.