US Concern Over Anti-AC Moves.

The US military on April 15 said it was closely following the arrests of 15 AC leaders, plus the threatened arrests of five others. But it insisted the detentions were not part of a deliberate government campaign against the ACs, which are mostly Sunni iribesmen and include former insurgents.

US military officials say their fear is that the arrests, while relatively few so far, have created a public perception the government was cracking down on the ACs, which could undermine the AC programme, widely credited with helping to end the Neo-Salafi insurgency in much of Iraq. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, chief of reconciliation and engagement for the US forces in Iraq, and the top liaison with the ACs, said: "We don't think it's a systemic problem. But with each individual arrest the perception is there that it's an assault on the entire [AC] programme".

In addition to the 15 AC leaders arrested in recent weeks, the IAF is tracking the cases of five others subject of arrest warrants. US generals were so concerned about ACs that Col Kulmayer said he reported to them daily on problems the groups were having, including delayed salary payments. He said the late payrolls had been cleared up in most areas, the one exception being Diyala Province. He added: "We're going to track very carefully that the right thing is being done, that the good guy is not being arrested but that the bad ones are".

Col Kulmayer said the US military was determined to intervene if necessary and had already in the case of prominent AC leader in Baghdad, Col. Ra'd 'Ali of the Ghazaliya area, a one-time stronghold of al-Qaeda. He said: "It turns out the charges were trumped up". US officials persuaded a judge to dismiss the case and release him. He said the number of arrests was small relative to the total number of AC leaders. Of the 323 leaders in Baghdad, eight have been detained; of the 275 leaders in Diyala and Salahuddin, seven were detained.

Apart from the leaders, at least 164 rank-and-file AC members have been arrested. In addition to the delays in paying salaries, a budget crisis brought on by the plunge in oil prices has made it hard for the government to make good on its promise of jobs for ACs. These developments have shaken AC members' faith in the government's intentions, which they say could send some in the movement back to the Neo-Salafi insurgency.

Col Kulmayer said: "I think all these things happened at the same time and made it look bad". But he insisted Maleki and other Iraqi officials remained committed to financing the AC programme and integrating AC members into permanent ministry jobs, which pay more than the roughly $300/month stipend earned by AC members.

The problem lies mainly with the process of issuing arrest warrants. Under Iraqi law, a warrant requires only two witnesses, and records are not centralised, so charges can easily be fabricated. Col Kulmayer said those doing so were "factions in the country that are trying to undermine the reconciliation". He identified those factions as Shi'ite extremists and al-Qaeda.

The US military first sponsored most of the ACs but has been handing responsibility for managing and paying them to the government with the promise that members will be hired into permanent government jobs. But with the exception of 4,291 police officers, none of the 94,000 AC members have been given government positions.

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