THE hearts of all decent people must go out to the families and friends of the 1,000 or more pilgrims feared to have perished yesterday in the catastrophe in northern Baghdad. It was a tragedy of epic proportions, by far the single largest loss of life in Iraq since the beginning of the bloody insurgency.
Those who seek to blame the authorities for poor crowd control or the security forces for inadequately doing their jobs or even the pilgrims themselves for allowing themselves to be panicked should hold their tongues. The only people guilty on the terrible day were the terrorists who, because of their past record, were able to create fear and horror on this important religious festival which was attended by over one million of Iraq’s Shiite Muslims.
Given the fact that suicide bombers choose those places where the highest number of innocent people to stage their macabre shows, the rumor that ran through the crowd that there was a suicide bomber among the dense crowd of worshippers was entirely credible. Unfortunately, the rumor was itself the means of death. In the panic-driven rush to escape, far more people died than would ever have been killed or injured by a suicide bomber. Had there been such a bomber, the blast would have been absorbed for the most part by those unlucky enough to be closest to him.
Perhaps the rumor of a bomber originated with a terrorist in the crowds. If that person was not killed in the subsequent mayhem, he may have gone away, crowing with glee at the death and destructions his few words had resulted in.
The anger of the Iraqi Shiite community at this latest assault upon its members — during a time of peaceful worship on an important day in its religious calendar — was of course exactly what the insurgents intended. They hope to provoke furious reprisals against Sunnis and so continue their campaign to set Iraqi against Iraqi.
It is time Sunni leaders took a sensible measure of the situation. Last week they failed to condemn with one voice the praise of Saddam Hussein at demonstrations such as those in Baquba. And they now have a new opportunity of impressing upon Sunni hotheads the folly of supporting the men of violence. Iraqi Sunnis are busy registering, in the hope that they will be able to vote down the proposed constitution which they believe would lead to the dissolution of Iraq. It is not simply a case of losing direct access to the oil wealth in the country’s north and south. Sunni politicians have warned that in a federal system their community would be less able to influence the country’s course.
That analysis is undoubtedly correct. Yet by harboring terrorists in their midst, the Sunni community is actually helping to bring about the very division of the country which it fears.
Yesterday’s terrible tragedy ought to be a watershed for all decent Iraqi Sunnis and their representatives. They know, and very probably fear, the violent extremists among them. They should also know that the bloodshed and hatred that these people offer can be no part of a united pluralist Iraq.
