On 25 January 2008 DIIS held the conference "Shia-Islamist political actors in Iraq: Who are they and what do they want?" Listen to Ghanim Jawad, Reidar Visser and Søren Schmidt as they elaborate on the history of Shia-politics in Iraq and current political developments.Three experts spoke on Shia-politics in IraqAudiofiles from the DIIS conference on Shia-Islamist actors in IraqGhanim Jawad, who is Head of Section with the Al-Khoei Foundation in London and a longstanding and active member of the exiled Iraqi intelligentsia, gave a unique and unusually nuanced insight into the Shia-Islamic political movements in Iraq. Reidar Visser, who is a Senior Researcher with the Norwegian Institute for International Studies (NUPI) and runs the website historiae.org, spoke on the history of Southern Iraqi separatism, concluding that a separation of Iraq along sectarian lines would have little or no roots in the history of the region. He also admitted that there were some forces working to promote Southern Iraqi separatism in present-day Iraq, and that a separate Southern Iraqi entity might eventually be the outcome of the ongoing strife. Søren Schmidt, who is a Project Researcher with DIIS, attempted to sum up the questions that remain: Which internal and external conflicts does Iraq face? Is the drop in violence levels, which seemingly has followed the American military surge, the prelude to a long awaited reconciliation or merely silence before the storm? Does the political centre hold, or is Iraq fragmenting into multiple local power centres which will produce unrest and instability for many years to come? |
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