{"id":22316,"date":"2018-11-18T18:23:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T18:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22316"},"modified":"2018-11-18T18:23:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T18:23:30","slug":"in-iraq-bloody-tribal-custom-now-classed-as-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22316","title":{"rendered":"In Iraq, bloody tribal custom now classed as \u2018terrorism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBAGHDAD: A bloody, age-old custom used by Iraq\u2019s powerful tribes to mete out justice has come under fire, with authorities classifying it as a \u201cterrorist act\u201d punishable by death.
For centuries, Iraqi clans have used their own system to resolve disputes, with tribal dignitaries bringing together opposing sides to mediate in de facto \u201chearings.\u201d
If one side failed to attend such a meeting, the rival clan would fire on the absentee\u2019s home or that of fellow tribesmen, a practice known as the \u201cdegga ashairiya\u201d or \u201ctribal warning.\u201d
But in an age when Iraq\u2019s vast rural areas and built-up cities alike are flooded with weapons outside state control, the \u201cdegga\u201d may be deadlier than ever.
A recent dispute between two young men in a teashop in the capital\u2019s eastern district of Sadr City escalated to near-fatal proportions, leaving a 40-year-old policeman with a broken hip and severely damaged abdomen.
His cousin Abu Tayba said the policeman was \u201cwounded in a stray bullet during a \u2018degga\u2019 on a nearby home.\u201d
\u201cWeeks after the incident, he\u2019s still in the hospital, hovering between life and death,\u201d Tayba told AFP.
Even in Baghdad, disputes often involve machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the city\u2019s military command warned a top Iraqi court recently.
That body, the country\u2019s Superior Magistrate Council, issued a decision last week classifying \u201cdeggas\u201d as \u201cterrorist acts\u201d \u2014 and therefore warranting the death penalty \u2014 because of their impact on public safety.
A few days later, it announced it would take legal action against three people accused of targeting a home in Al-Adhamiyah, north of Baghdad, with the deadly custom.<\/p>\n

\nIn Iraq, a country of 39 million people, clan origin and family name can carry weight in securing a job, finding romance, and gathering political support.
They can also interfere in the work of the state, as tribal structures in some areas can be more powerful than government institutions.
Last year, Iraq\u2019s tribes and the ministries of interior and justice pledged to work closer together to impose the law, but \u201cdeggas\u201d seem to have hindered such cooperation.
Raed Al-Fraiji, the head of a tribal council in the southern province of Basra, told AFP the warnings have become commonplace.
\u201cThis happens every day. Yesterday it happened twice. The day before, three times,\u201d he said.
\u201cTwo months ago, a domestic dispute between a husband and wife turned into an armed attack on the husband\u2019s home. The exchange of fire killed one person and wounded three.\u201d
Fraiji said tribal influence and practices were growing because the state was seen as unreliable.
\u201cFor an Iraqi citizen, the law has become weak. Meanwhile, tribes impose themselves by force.\u201d
\u201cIraq is like a jungle \u2014 so a citizen will turn to a tribe to find solutions to their problems.\u201d
The country has been ravaged by years of conflict since the US-led invasion in 2003 that removed strongman Saddam Hussein and led to the rise of militias.
A decade later, the Daesh group overran much of Iraq and was only ousted from its urban strongholds across the country late last year.<\/p>\n

\nYears of instability have left many of Iraq\u2019s communities flush with weapons and largely out of the state\u2019s reach, contributing to a preference for tribal mediation methods.
\u201cThe government is responsible for the increase in tribal conflict and of \u2018degga\u2019 cases,\u201d said Adnan Al-Khazaali, a tribal leader in Baghdad\u2019s Sadr City.
\u201cMost of the young men today are armed and even the security forces cannot stand in their way.\u201d
Tribal leaders and government officials alike are clinging to the hope that the new ruling could change things.
\u201cThese incidents are continually happening, and are often causing casualties,\u201d interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AFP.
\u201cCourt rulings and their implementation,\u201d Maan said, could be the only way to secure peace.
Back in Basra, the head of the local human rights commission estimated around a dozen people were wounded or killed in \u201cdeggas\u201d last year.
\u201cThese incidents threatens social peace,\u201d said Mahdi Al-Tamimi.
\u201cIt\u2019s sad and worrying, and cannot be eliminated without a solid and effective law.\u201d
But Fraiji, known in Basra for his relatively progressive views, feared the court\u2019s ruling would not be enough to take on Iraq\u2019s powerful clans.
\u201cThe decision will only remain ink on paper if the security forces do not enforce it on the tribes,\u201d he said.
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD: A bloody, age-old custom used by Iraq\u2019s powerful tribes to mete out justice has come under fire, with authorities classifying it as a \u201cterrorist act\u201d punishable by death.For centuries, Iraqi clans have used their own system to resolve disputes, with tribal dignitaries bringing together opposing sides to mediate in de facto \u201chearings.\u201dIf one side…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}