SAUDI ARABIA: SHIA & SUNNI CLERCIS GATHER IN MECCA

Mecca bid to halt Iraq sectarian dirty war

RIYADH (AFP) - Iraqi clerics gathered in Saudi Arabia to issue a desperate plea from Islam's holiest place for a halt to sectarian bloodletting that is killing dozens of Muslims every day.

The Shiite and Sunni clerics were due to gather after sundown at a royal palace hard by Mecca's Great Mosque to issue the appeal for an end to the killing of fellow Muslims on the last day of prayer of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference which is sponsoring the initiative said at least 25 Iraqi clerics were expected to take part in the ceremony which was due to kick off at 1930 GMT after the end of the daytime Ramadan fast.

The spiritual leader of Iraq' Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has sent "a message which will be read on his behalf at the signing ceremony," an OIC official told AFP.

Sistani decided not to send a representative but "supports and blesses" the gathering, an aide told AFP at his base in the Iraqi Shiite clerical capital of Najaf.

The leading Sunni in Iraq's Shiite-led national unity government, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, was also in Mecca although officially he was there to perform the lesser pilgrimage or Omra traditionally performed at the end of Ramadan, the Al-Watan daily said.

The Iraqi clerics flew in on a special flight laid on by the Saudi authorities, the OIC official said, although he declined to specify their number.

The Islamic bloc has acknowledged that the success of its initiative will largely depend on the level of participation by the spiritual leaders of the two communities.

"If the level is not high, this meeting will serve no purpose," a spokesman said.

Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia US commanders accuse of carrying out much of the killing from the Shiite side, is also not sending a representative to the gathering although he gave it his qualified support on Wednesday.

"I support all conferences that go in line with the interest of Iraq, though I would have preferred it to be held in Iraq," he said.

The clerics will approve a 10-point text drafted by a smaller group of four clerics from two communities under OIC auspices.

The text draws on verses of the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed highlighting that "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden."

It also calls for safeguarding the two communities' holy places, defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and the release of "all innocent detainees."

The OIC spokesman stressed that the summit was "not a conference or a forum or a venue for negotiations."

Rather, "it is a meeting of the marjaya (Shiite religious authorities) and Sunni ulema (clerics) to anoint the document, which will be distributed to Iraqis and publicized in the media.

"This initiative aims to quell religious conflict and does not profess to reconcile the protagonists," he emphasized.

Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has seen the death toll from the communal bloodletting spiral since he launched a national reconciliation plan in June, said he hoped the gathering would give a boost to his government's efforts.

"We pin hopes on every step made by people who care for the interest of Iraq and condemn the terror acts in Iraq," he said.

"A conference like that in Mecca, whereby Shiite and Sunni clerics are to attend, is deemed to be a support to efforts at home to find common ground for dialogue."

But the meeting came after the US military acknowledged Thursday that the impact of the government's efforts to restore security had been "disheartening" and required a rethink.

"The violence is indeed disheartening. In Baghdad alone we have seen a 22 percent increase in attacks during the first three weeks of Ramadan as compared to the three weeks preceding Ramadan," spokesman Major General William Caldwell said.

"We are obviously very concerned about what we are seeing in the city. We are taking a lot of time to go back and look at the Baghdad security plan."


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