Word: basra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sunnis have traditionally been strongly opposed. Among the Shi'ites, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) has favored the idea a super region in the south, but the movement of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has insisted on a strong central state. But the proposal to turn Basra into an autonomous region is comes not from the Supreme Council, but rather from a coalition of Shi'ite independents and the small Fadila Party, which dominates in the province. (See TIME's pictures of the week...
...media this week, its backers must garner an additional 139,200 signatures to meet the required 10% of the province's voting population in order to call a referendum. The central government is then obliged to hold the vote within 15 days. "If we get 51% of the votes, Basra will become a region," al-Fadel says...
...While the Supreme Council - whose idea of a super-region is far more expansive than just Basra, and whose concern would obviously be to create a political entity in which it could rule - is sitting on the fence in response to the Basra autonomy proposal, the Sadrists are furious. "It's playing with fire that could engulf all of Iraq," says Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Sadr's movement in the southern Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. "The result might be the division of Iraq if it's forced now, during this period...
...even with the backing of Basra's influential tribal sheikhs and the Fadila Party, winning a majority won't be easy in the face of concerted opposition from Maliki's Dawa Party and his sometime ally-sometime foe Sadr. Less certain is the reaction from the Supreme Council, which has long favored a semi-autonomous nine-province "super region" in the south (which it would have a fair shot at governing) rather than a smaller one in Basra, governed by Fadila. "We are not participating in this because we are busy with other things," says parliamentarian Redha Taki, the head...
...Fadel insists that a federal region of Basra will not contradict the notion of a strong, central government and that the district's wealth will be shared. "We don't want a defense ministry, or interior or finance ministries, a currency or diplomatic relations," he says. "We just want services for the area; water, sewage, health, education. The central government has failed to provide these." The prime minister cannot "create a state based on his ideas - the state is based on the constitution," al-Fadel adds. "The ideas of one man are no longer the foundation for creating a state...