Diyala struggles to overcome sectarian bad blood

A month later, soldiers from Baghdad returned, saying they had orders to detain the council's leading Sunni member, Abed Jabbar Ibrahim.

The council chairman, Abed Talib Mohammed Hussein, says he went to his office to call the U.S. military but that when he returned to the council chamber, Ibrahim had already been led out, blindfolded. When Hussein raced to the Humvee that Hussein had been taken to, the soldiers from Baghdad pointed their guns at him.

A captain came over and kissed Hussein and told him Ibrahim would be gone only 15 minutes.


Ibrahim has now been held for 18 months. His family has not seen him even once.

"All of these accusations happened under false pretenses and happened because the political blocs clashed," Hussein said. Ibrahim "is an exemplary figure and believes in democracy."

The arrest had a devastating effect on the council.

Several representatives went into hiding, showing up for meetings only sporadically. The council hesitated to move forward on decisions, such as whether to push for the resignation of the provincial police chief sent from Baghdad.

Council members across sectarian lines echo the belief that the arrests are politically driven, alluding to the deep-rooted power struggle in Baghdad that plays out in pockets such as Diyala.

"Some political figures or blocs believe in democracy," said the deputy council chairman, Sadiq Jaffar, a Shiite. "There are those who have no political experience and want to achieve their goals by any means."

And council members say they worry about what they see as an absence of due process in the arrests.

"We should know what the results are. Do we have the right as members of the council and blocs to know the status for the investigation, what kind of charges, or not?" said Jaffar. "We sometimes don't even know if a warrant is issued or activated until the person is detained."

Meanwhile Jassim, the deputy governor, has been transferred to a general detention facility from the notorious Baghdad Brigade facility under Maliki's control. That facility was cited in an internal U.S. government cable last January noting allegations of torture against some prisoners there.

Some sources say Jassim confessed to the charges against him while he was being held.

Now he awaits a trial that is supposed to begin soon, sharing space alongside Al Qaeda sympathizers and militiamen. There are fights in his cell block. He worries about getting killed.

But those who know Jassim say he reflects on his fight against Al Qaeda, on his relatives who died in the sectarian violence, on the homes and lives destroyed in the fighting. And he is undeterred, they say, in his wish to serve Diyala.

From jail he has vowed: "I will keep supporting the democratic changes in my country."

ned.parker@latimes.com