The head of the Baghdad International Center for Studies and Peacebuilding Dr. Adnan Al-Shahmani participates with a research paper in the symposium held by the Academy of the Ministry of Defense in Vienna

In Austria, during his participation in the symposium held by the Academy of the Ministry of Defense in Vienna, the head of the Baghdad Center for Studies and Peacebuilding, Dr. Adnan Al-Shahmani, presented his research paper, which focused on discussing the file of the popular crowd and its role in Iraq and the integration of militias into the Iraqi security forces. The paper also included a definition of the concept of militia And the concept of merging and the relationship of these two concepts to the popular crowd, and the paper also included the answer to questions that have long jumped to the surface in any dialogue inside or outside Iraq, such as the relationship of the popular crowd with the state and the extent to which the militia concept applies to the popular crowd and its future in Iraq.

The following is the text of the research paper…

Gentlemen of the audience, I greet you and extend my sincere thanks to the Academy of the Ministry of Defense in Vienna for hosting me.

Before starting the research, it is necessary to go through the definition of some of the vocabulary of an objective axis according to the European definition or the Austrian definition, in order for the purpose of the research to become clear.

First, the definition of merging and what does it mean? What does the militia mean and what does the crowd mean?

The subject of research is: Can the crowd be integrated into the Iraqi army? Is it correct to call the crowd a militia? And does the definition of militia apply to him? According to the definition in the host country Austria or in Iraq.

Militia, in the definition of Austria, are auxiliary forces for the state, which are trained and practice their civil life normally.

As for the concept of integration, which is the integration of the militia or the groups that contributed to changing a dictatorial regime or contributed to a revolution against it or defended in another way for the state and the homeland in all forms of defense and in honor of the role it played and the state’s need for them on the one hand and for the purpose of containing them and not turning them into a tool of obstruction in the construction project from On the other hand, they were integrated into state institutions, each according to his specialization and readiness.

This clarifies the meaning of militia and the meaning of integration, and this definition is agreed upon inside and outside Iraq.

Now we need to define the crowd, and after the definition, it becomes clear to all of us whether the definition of militia applies to it according to the two previous definitions, and whether the concept of integration applies to it.

Respected gentlemen

The Popular Mobilization Authority is an official governmental institution that was established by a decision of the Council of Ministers on 6/15/2014. It operates within the framework of the state. The ownership of weapons and equipment belongs to the state, just like any governmental institution. It was voted on in the Iraqi Council of Representatives on 11/26/2016 by the majority of its members. Where 212 deputies voted on it out of an attendance rate of 218 deputies, and it was approved by the President of the Republic and published in the media on 12-19-2016 based on the provisions of Clause (First) of Article (61), and Clause (Third) of Article (73). of the constitution and was published in the Iraqi Gazette in issue 4429 in 2016. With this law, the Popular Mobilization Authority is an official government institution linked to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. It gained its legitimacy from the decision of the Council of Ministers as a draft law that was voted on in a council and approved by the President of the Republic. The Popular Mobilization works within the framework Law and the state.

As for the militia, it is an armed group that operates outside the framework of the state and has been integrated into the state, as mentioned above, such as the integration of the Badr militia, the National Congress Party, the Communist Party, the Peshmerga, the Dawa Party forces, etc., according to the order of the civil governor in Iraq, Paul Bremer, No. 91 on the first of June 2004.

Thus, it is clear that the Hashd is not a militia and does not operate outside the law, and the concept of integration into the state does not apply to it, being an institution within the state, so it is not possible to discuss the integration of the Hashd according to this research.

Do we have a militia in Iraq that meets the Iraqi definition of a militia? I say yes, and we have it, and the names of its factions are known. There is a question raised: Are these the Hashd? I say in response to that that these are from the crowd and they are not the crowd because they do not constitute more than ten percent of the crowd, but less than that, and the rest are volunteers, but when Mosul and some Iraqi cities fell, these factions moved and included the volunteers because those factions have cadres capable of leadership and most of these cadres did not They officially belong to the Hashd Organization, but they rose up like the rest of the Iraqi people to confront the threat and protect the people and the state from the ISIS gang, which the world has unanimously considered as a terrorist gang.

In response to a question, he says, “So, what do the speeches issued by Iraqi political leaders mean by integrating the crowd into the army?”

This is a very important question, so I say that they intend to integrate the members of the Hashd Authority after it was dissolved as an institution and distribute the fighters individually to the Iraqi army units.

This is met with great opposition from the House of Representatives and the Iraqi people, because Iraq, which is still living the same threat to such a force, which has an official strength of (110-120 thousand fighters), maintain the security of the people and protect the state from complete collapse and falling into the hands of terrorism, with the presence of security forces estimated at one million fighter.

Iraq still needs this body, and it does not pose any threat to any party, whether internal or external, and its threat is limited to ISIS and terrorism only.