Profound Lack of Trust Discolors Iraq’s Future

As their country takes its first tentative steps toward self-government, Iraqis are voicing their distrust of one another, underscoring the difficulty of pulling together many tribes, regions and visions of the future into a cohesive whole.

Iraqis who fled Saddam Hussein’s regime can’t possibly understand the people’s suffering, say those who stayed behind. Iraqis who stayed behind can’t possibly understand democracy, say those who left. Tribal leaders were too close to Hussein; religious leaders don’t care about anyone but their own small circles, rivals say.

In some cases, the attacks have been more than verbal, as seen Thursday when two opposing Shiite leaders were shot to death in a mosque in Najaf after supporters clashed during a meeting meant to bring reconciliation.

The complexities of creating a workable democracy in Iraq, at least in these early days and weeks, are embodied in two men: Sheik Muzahim, a religious leader tapped by the British government to administer a portion of southern Iraq, and Ahmad Chalabi, a longtime expatriate who many in the Pentagon hope will emerge as the head of a transitional authority.

Muzahim is willing to accept some former Baath Party members in a new government, while Chalabi’s position is that of zero tolerance. Yet Muzahim is derided for his ties to the former regime, while Chalabi is mocked as an outsider.

Muzahim is a member of the Tammimi tribe, which makes its home in the town of Zubayr outside Basra. Before the Friday prayer, tribal leaders and supporters gathered to discuss politics -- and to slam inbound Iraqi expatriates. These returnees hoping to seize power after years abroad represent the “opposition of the five-star hotels,” said Mansour Tammimi, an advisor to Muzahim.

On the contrary, said Chalabi, a longtime exile and head of the London-based Iraqi National Congress opposition group. At another meeting about 100 miles away later in the day, he sat on an Army cot at his supporters’ Free Iraqi Forces camp in Nasiriyah. The only people who mounted effective opposition to Hussein during the dictator’s reign, Chalabi said, were those living overseas.

Muzahim has advocated that district police chiefs return to work despite their close ties to Hussein’s Baath regime, arguing that law and order outweigh a full airing of past sins.

Chalabi, a strong advocate of purges and “de-Baathification,” sees no room for compromise.

“That’s the same argument in Germany after the fall of the Nazis,” he said. “The idea that the Baathists can make the trains run on time doesn’t hold water.”

How it will be resolved remains to be seen, as politicians criticize religious leaders and ordinary people complain they’re not being consulted.

U.S. officials said Friday that they would convene a meeting Tuesday in Nasiriyah to discuss the formation of an interim authority.

One fault line that has not yet opened, despite broad-based fears, has been the division between Sunni Muslims, who comprise about 32% of the population -- including Hussein and most of his regime -- and the majority Shiites, who make up about 65% of Iraqis and dominate the south. The division was the backdrop for the protracted 1980s war between Iraq and Shiite-dominated Iran.

“There’s no problem between Sunnis and Shiites,” said Jawad Khudeir, a 35-year-old trader, as he waited in front of a British military installation for news about his brother, who was injured in a grenade accident. “I’m a Sunni, but I would have no trouble supporting a Shiite president if he were just.”

Still, Iraqis say, the general lack of trust seen elsewhere in society shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the Hussein regime’s long-standing and largely effective practice of exploiting regional, ethnic and religious differences to maintain its supremacy.

A related and fundamental question for any future leader, meanwhile, is how far to pursue members of Hussein’s Baath regime even as many attempt to flee or slip into the local population. At issue is how to balance the need for justice against a desire to avoid a witch hunt, given that many Iraqis joined the party for no other reason than to get a decent job.

Tammimi, an attorney, sat in a large meeting room at the front of his family’s house, ringed by dozens of men on carpets and chairs beneath framed phrases from the Koran.

Tammimi argued that Iraq needs elections, perhaps in a year, after water and electricity have been restored and other repairs have been made. Iraq is vulnerable right now and needs help, he said.

“It’s like someone who is dead and everyone’s fighting over the inheritance,” Tammimi said. “We need someone to figure out who’s going to pay for the funeral.”

Outside the house, however, several passersby said they thought rule under Muzahim would be a mistake. On Thursday, people threw rocks and demonstrated out front.

“These people, the Tammimis, are not good,” said Naser Awad, 27, a mechanic. “Sheik Muzahim advised Saddam Hussein, resulting in the killing of a lot of people.”

Nathan Abd, 36, pointed at the rooftop of the Tammimi house, where several men stood guard with machine guns.

“Yesterday there was a demonstration with rocks, but today it could be with machine guns,” he said. “How can he say he’s representing the people if he’s hiding behind guns?”

A bit closer to Baghdad, in Nasiriyah, Chalabi returned from a sunset trip to the nearby ruins of Ur, sat down beside a floodlight powered by a noisy generator and outlined his vision of the future.

Chalabi said many Iraqi tribal leaders benefited from the Hussein regime. Now they’re hiding senior members of the Baath Party who did them favors in the past. The Baathists must be driven out, he said, without taking actions that result in bloodletting.

“We must agree to destroy the Baath Party, but agree also not to carry out violence against individual Baathists,” he said.

Hunar Hassan, 37, a member of Chalabi’s Free Iraqi Forces, said the overseas crowd has a broader perspective.

“If you rely on leaders in Iraq, you just change one Saddam Hussein for another Saddam Hussein,” he said. “All he taught people here to do was how to be dictators, kill, steal and create problems between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.”