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Baghdad: The Iraqi government will continue its crackdown on the Sunni Awakening forces in the country and will not protect its leaders, Hadi Al Ameri, the head of the security and defence commission of the Shiite coalition in parliament, told Gulf News.
Al Ameri said an agreement with the US to combat Al Qaida focuses on three issues.
Firstly, the Iraqi government plans to merge 15 per cent of the members of the Sunni Awakening into the Iraqi armed forces as individuals and not as part of a larger group.
These men will hold low-ranked positions as foot soldiers or police officers.
Secondly, they will not deal with any members accused of criminal activities.
Finally, they will not deal with any members who have refused to co-operate with the Iraqi government in the past.
Some political parties have discussed merging 100,00 members of the group into the Iraqi forces, but the government insists that only the 15 per cent will be incorporated. The Sunni Islamic Party, led by Tarek Al Hashemi, has urged the merger of at least half of the members of the Awakening's forces into the army and police.
There are at least 100,000 members of the group in Baghdad, 40,000 in Al Anbar, 30,000 in the Diyala province and several thousand in Babil and Salah Al Deen provinces, Omar Abdul Sattar, a prominent leader of the Islamic Party, told Gulf News.
"The Iraqi government must merge at least half of this number into the Iraqi forces as a reward for fighting Al Qaida and improving security in Iraqi cities," he said.
Moqtada Al Sadr's followers are against merging any of the group's members into the army.
"We were wary from the beginning in dealing with the members of the Sunni Awakening because we believe that its establishment was based on a US agenda," Salah Obaidi , one of the assistants of Al Sadr, told Gulf News. "However, we appreciate their role in fighting Al Qaida and because of this, we have not confronted the Awakening forces," he added.
Fears
There are some fears that the Awakening will become a state within a state if they are allowed to merge. The group has always tried to be independent from the Iraqi government, and most members have not accepted the authority of the central government, Obaidi explained. He warns that if the group is allowed to merge, it could lead to a military coup.
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