Baghdad Mayor Ousted In "Coup"

Well, here's the first coup - want to bet it won't be the last?

By now it's probable that you have heard reports that a bunch of armed Shia militiamen walked into the Baghdad mayor's office and installed one of their own as the new mayor - no election and no action from either the Iraqi government or the Coalition.

As the New York Times puts it:

This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

The group that ousted him insisted that it had the authority to assume control of Iraq's capital city and that Mr. Tamimi was in no danger. The man the group installed, Hussein al-Tahaan, is a member of the Badr Organization, the armed militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.

The militia has been credited with keeping the peace in heavily Shiite areas in southern Iraq but also accused of abuses like forcing women to wear the veils demanded by conservative Shiite religious law.

"If we wanted to do something bad to him, we would have done that," said Mazen A. Makkia, the elected city council chief who led the ouster on Monday and who had been in a lengthy and unresolved legal feud with Mr. Tamimi.

Mayor Tamini had only held office since last May. His appointment at the time was hailed by The Coalition Provisional Authority with these words:

The successful mayoral selection process concluded several weeks of intense negotiations among Council members who courageously constructed the nominating rules and voting guidelines solely for the purpose of determining the mayoral selection procedures.

The selection of Tamimi brilliantly illustrated that, despite difficulties lurking in particular areas of Iraq, consensus championed divisions among the council.

The change of mayor is the culmination of weeks of intercine political feuding in Bagdhad, including allegations of corruption by Tamini from the very council that originally nominated him by an overwhelming vote. The allegations were taken up by the Shiite newspaper "Al-Adala", which is the official mouthpiece of the Badr-dominated Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Tamini had already offered to resign and the council had already "fired" him but the central government had taken no action.

Although the Badr militia are insisting their action was legal and that the 50 or more armed militiamen present were simply bodyguards for the newly installed mayor and his colleagues, the very fact that a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister is simply calling this undemocratic move a "fait accompli" will bolster confidence among armed groups who wish to co-opt the government for their own ends.

If Iraq ends up in the hands of a mix of Army generals and militiamen, ruling by unelected junta, then all the heroism and bloodshed really will have been to no effect.