BAGHDAD, 31 July 2005 — A leading Sunni official in Iraq said he has been sacked by the government over his outspoken complaints against the killings and arrests of members of his community by the police.
Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Waqf, or religious endowment authority in Iraq, said he had received a letter from Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on Tuesday announcing his replacement in the post.
“I have been chased out of my job because I defend the Sunnis,” Dulaimi told AFP.
The move could aggravate tensions between the Shiite-led government and the minority Sunni community, which has lost its once dominant role in Iraq following the ousting of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
“I am asking for unconditional release of all imprisoned Sunnis and I demand that tortures, murders and kidnappings targeting members of this community be halted. I quite simply want an end to the violence,” Dulaimi said.
Iraq’s minority Sunni community largely boycotted the landmark January elections and is regarded as the backbone of the deadly insurgency.
Dulaimi, 74, took up his Waqf post in October 2003.
Since the fall of Saddam’s regime there have been three Waqfs — one representing Sunni, one Shiite and one for other religions.
Dulaimi said his replacement was to be Ahmad Abdel Ghaffur Al-Samarrai, who belongs to a Sunni religious committee that is hostile to the US-led presence in the country and which also called for a boycott of the elections. “I accept this position, which I will start on Sunday, because I have the same vision and the same ideas as Dulaimi. I will continue what he began,” Samarrai said.
