Ex-Envoy: Iraq Near Low-Level Civil War(London)

[cal04]

Iraq is slipping into a state of low-level civil war, and troops in the U.S.-led foreign coalition will probably need to stay for some time to help keep peace among rival ethnic and religious groups, Britain's former ambassador to the country said Sunday.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was London's senior representative in Baghdad until 2004, said increasing sectarian bloodshed is a worrisome development for Iraq, which has seen an upsurge in such violence since the bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra on Wednesday.

``One could almost call it a low-level civil war already,'' Greenstock told British television channel ITV1.

He said that though he does not think a ``classic civil war'' will develop, he fears local communities will look increasingly to militias for protection rather than the central authorities in Baghdad.

``The unity of the country, the forward progress of the country would be lost,'' Greenstock said.

The envoy, who served as British ambassador to the United Nations in the run-up to the 2003 war before being sent to Iraq, said ``quiet assassinations'' from sectarian divisions are almost commonplace in parts of Iraq.

``There are elements of ethnic cleansing, getting a minority community out of an area so that the majority community can take over, in certain parts of Iraq. Certainly not in all of Iraq, but in some of the main cities, this is happening,'' he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5648972,00.html

[Benbow]

1. Being a British diplomat, he will be wa-a-a-y understating what he really

thinks.