WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- A top British general said Friday the rise of sectarian militias in Iraq has occurred because of the delays in the formal political process to establish a new government.
If the new Iraqi prime minister quickly seizes the reins of government and begins to make necessary changes in the governance of Iraq, the militias will be weakened and will be more easily dismantled, said Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Sir Robert Fry, the deputy commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq.
"Once that happens, an awful lot of the moral and indeed the physical strength and sustainment which the militias have at the present time will begin to disappear," Fry said from Baghdad during a Pentagon press video teleconference.
"For so long as there is a hiatus in the movement forward of the formal part of the process, then there is the chance of politics slipping out to the streets," Fry said. "And what you see with the rise of these militias is a reflection of that. We have had an extended political hiatus while this government has been standing up, and that has permitted radical politicians and some militias to claim to represent, to regulate and to communicate -- to protect their own communities."
More than 1,000 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian attacks in Baghdad in the last month alone, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani stated this week.
Much of the violence has been laid at the feet of Shiite militias.
"As far as the Shiite community is concerned, it is trying to cram 30 years of habitual and repeated discrimination -- it's trying to get equal in a period of about the three-year period we've had since the beginning of our entry into Iraq. This will eventually find its level," Fry said.
He is optimistic that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will "drag the political process back within a constitutional framework."
"And when he does that, then he will take an awful lot of the steam out of the parallel political process, which as I've described, is something which has (been) enacted on the streets themselves," Fry said.
"Military force alone can never bring about decisive results in a post-conflict situation. All we can do is hold the ring while politics and economics, the things that change people's lives, are being brought into play," he said.
