McGuinness urges Iraq to learn from N.Ireland peace

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former top IRA guerrilla, urged Iraqis on Saturday to learn from the experience of his homeland, which suffered decades of sectarian conflict then found peace.

McGuinness was addressing a conference on national reconciliation in Baghdad that brought together politicians from across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divide.

The participants - who included prominent Iraqi politicians - issued a communique of principles at the end of the meeting that they said should be used to heal Iraq's divisions.

McGuinness is an Irish Catholic nationalist and member of Sinn Fein, the political ally of the Irish Republic Army (IRA), which fought to expel British troops from Northern Ireland.

McGuinness, who had been a former commander in the IRA in the 1970s, was one of the top Sinn Fein politicians who sought a negotiated peace through a power sharing agreement in 1998 with the pro-British Unionists.

"We learnt an awful lot. At that time (of the peace talks) the Unionists wouldn't travel in the same air plane as (us), they wouldn't eat in the same canteen, they wouldn't sleep in the same sleeping quarters," McGuinness said.

"Now here we are, 10 years on, sitting down around a government table together."

The IRA officially ended its armed campaign in 2005, after calls from Sinn Fein.

The Baghdad conference brought together Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs as well as Kurds. Delegates from South Africa, including businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, who played a role in talks to end apartheid, also attended the conference at a hotel in the heavily guarded Green Zone government compound.

It followed earlier meetings in Finland organized by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a non-governmental body headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who has been active in talks involving divided communities in Kosovo and the Indonesian province of Aceh since his presidency ended.

The communique included the need to avoid language that could inflame sectarian hatred, a commitment to peaceful negotiations that do not allow the use of weapons by armed groups and restricting guns to the hands of government forces.

STRUGGLE FOR POWER

Various power struggles are playing out in Iraq - the most recent an intra-Shi'ite battle pitting the Shi'ite-led government against the Mehdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The government has launched a series of military operations against the Mehdi Army and Sunni insurgent groups that have helped drive violence to a four-year low.

But many Iraqis say true reconciliation will take years to achieve, given the extent of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007 that killed tens of thousands of people and nearly tipped the country into full-scale civil war.

"The issue of reconciliation won't end in a conference. It is an ongoing issue that will take months, if not years," said Iraq's national security advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie.

Some members of the minority Sunni Arab community say they have wanted reconciliation but feel they are too weak to get a fair deal after being marginalized.

"Reconciliation is sacred, but the government wants reconciliation on their stronger terms, which is oppressive," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, an outspoken Sunni Arab parliamentarian.

In a positive sign, Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc has said it was close to rejoining the government after quitting nearly a year ago. Mutlaq is not part of that bloc.

Sunni Arabs have little voice in the current Iraqi cabinet, which is dominated by Shi'ites and Kurds.