Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is charged with running a death squad, told AFP in an interview on Sunday he would not go to Baghdad to stand trial and raised the prospect of fleeing Iraq.
Hashemi, holed up at an official guesthouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the country's autonomous Kurdish region, acknowledged his guards may have carried out attacks, but he has steadfastly denied any involvement.
Don't forget that the Sunni Arab community has decades of oppressing Shias and Kurds under Saddam to live with plus centuries of pre-Saddam rule as well. We should want rule of law to apply to Sunni Arabs too but the Sunni Arabs must agree to operate under rule of law and not just exploit the freedoms they never granted others.
Clearly, as the terrorism of al Qaeda clearly shows, some Sunni Arabs are still trying to take power through terror. Now Hashemi indicates it is certainly possible that some of his subordinates took part in terrorism. Some have confessed. Hopefully there is evidence to support those confessions.
I'd be happier if Hashemi knew nothing. But he might have. And he certainly should have known if he didn't. And Sunni Arabs shouldn't reflexively band together when one of their own is charged with a crime. Remember, he has been charged with a crime and not just shot down in the street by goons or disappeared in the night. At some point he has to return to Baghdad to face a fair investigation and trial.
Let's support rule of law and see how the investigation plays out. If Hashemi is guilty, he should go to jail. If he was unaware of terrorists on his own staff, he should perhaps be out of the government. If he is innocent, he should return to office. We should have a role in getting rule of law to decide this--and to help all have the confidence to accept the outcome as justice and not a pre-ordained decision. Our efforts should not be directed at shielding Hashemi to maintain a surface calm.
We should be working to implement rule of law. Otherwise, we just encourage Sunni Arabs to continue to plot a return to dictatorial power.
