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KLMNO THE WORLD


Blast kills top police officer inMosul


Commander had led several operations


against al-Qaeda in Iraq BY AARON C. DAVIS


baghdad—An Iraqi police com- mander who had worked tena- ciously to root out Islamist insur- gents from the northern city of Mosulwaskilled, alongwiththree other officers, in a pre-dawn sui- cide attack on a police compound inthe cityWednesday. Lt. Col. Shamel Ahmed Ugla,


GORAN TOMASEVIC/REUTERS Ethnic southerners from the north line up to receiveWorld Food Programrations inAweil in southern Sudan. The south is expected to vote next month to split from the north. U.S.more hopeful Sudanwill hold vote


BASHIR SIGNALS ACCEPTANCE


Many thorny issues remain unresolved


BY MARY BETH SHERIDAN U.S. officials are growing opti-


mistic that Sudan will fulfill a central part of an American-bro- kered 2005 peace agreement — and potentially avert a bloody war — by holding a referendum next month that could split the African country in two. The referendum had been in


doubt because of delays in prepa- rations and the Sudanese govern- ment’s reluctance to let the south secede. But Sudanese President Omar


Hassan al-Bashir has begun to publicly accept the referendum, and registration for the vote has gone fairly smoothly. “Iamfarmoreoptimisticabout it than I was six weeks ago or so,”


said one senior State Department official, speaking on the condi- tion of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomacy involved. Still, risks persist. Perhaps the


most serious is the apparent fail- ure to achieve agreement on a parallel vote on the sensitive, oil- rich Abyei region on Sudan’s north-south border. Southern Sudanese are widely


expected to choose independence in the Jan. 9 referendum. The southerners, who are largely Christian and animist, have long complained of discrimination by northerners, who are mainly Muslim Arabs. President Obama’s administra-


tion has devoted increasingly high-level attention to Sudan, amid worries that Africa’s biggest country could erupt in civil war if southerners feel they were de- prived of a fair vote. About 2 million people died in


conflict between the north and south before the 2005 peace deal,. The agreement, which theGeorge W. Bush administration consid- ered a major achievement, grant- ed limited autonomy to the south for five years, followed by a vote


on independence. On Tuesday, Bashir empha-


sized his acceptance of the refer- endum, telling southerners in a speech that was broadcast: “The decision is yours. If you want unity, you are more than wel- come. . . . If you want separation, you are also welcome,” according to the BBC. Bashir’s government stands to


lose more than half its budget if the south, with its lucrative oil reserves, votes to split. As part of its recent diplomatic


effort, the Obama administration has said that it will remove Sudan from a list of state sponsors of terrorism if it honors the peace accord. That pledge was delivered by


Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Rela- tions Committee, who visited Su- dan twice last month. Kerry was seen as an important messenger because of his influence in Con- gress, which could agree to even- tually roll back economic sanc- tions on Sudan, according to peo- ple involved in the diplomatic effort. U.S. officials do not meet di-


DIGEST IVORYCOAST


Regional bloc puts off threatened action West African leaders blinked in


their showdown with Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday, taking a military intervention off the table for now so that negotiations can continue with the incumbent president, who refuses to hand over power in Ivory Coast. The 15-member Economic


Community of West African States, orECOWAS, had vowed to use force to oust Gbagbo if he did not agree Tuesday to step aside for the internationally recognized winner of last month’s election. Gbagbo refused to budge. The bloc’s delegation to Gbag-


bo reportedWednesday to Nigeri- an President Goodluck Jonathan, whose country is the biggest par- ticipant in ECOWAS. Jonathan said the delegation would return Monday to Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city. “They are encourag- ing us to go back,” he said. Meanwhile, State Department


spokesman Mark Toner said the United States has begun planning for the possible evacuation of its embassy in Ivory Coast amid con- cerns about a full-blown conflict. —Associated Press


NORTHERNIRELAND


Burst pipes cause mass water crisis Frustration and fears of dis-


ease mounted Wednesday in Northern Ireland, where about 36,000 people have been left without water, some for more than a week, since a deep freeze and a sudden thaw caused aging pipes to burst. With reservoirs running low,


water supplies were cut off in many towns and cities, and resi-


dents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for their cooking, cleaning and drinking needs. “It’s been a nightmare,” said


James Lawson, a resident in Lis- burn, near Belfast, who has gone without water for 13 days. The Northern Ireland govern-


ment scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss the crisis.


—Associated Press BULGARIA


rectly with Bashir because the International Criminal Court has indicted him on genocide charges stemming from the separate con- flict in the western Darfur region. Preparations for next month’s


referendum got off to a late start and were complicated by the fact that the balloting involves mil- lions of voters — some of them refugees abroad, others living in northern Sudan,andothers in the south, an impoverished region the size of France that does not have a single paved highway. Jon Temin, a Sudan specialist


at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said voter registration went “as well as anyone could have hoped for. There’s been some really impres- sive logistical preparation going on, against pretty high odds.” But the failure of plans for a


referendum on Abyei was worri- some, he said. The north and south disagreed over who would be eligible to vote on the region’s fate. The southern Sudanese have


long been allied with the Ngok Dinkatribe thatdominates Abyei, Temin noted. The north, mean- while, had sought participation


in the vote for members of a tribe, the Misseriya, who graze their cattle in Abyei for several months each year. “If the fighting starts locally


around Abyei, the question be- comes whether it escalates into a larger-scale conflict,” Temin said. Also unresolved are important


questions on how the north and south would interact if there is a split. The border has not been fully demarcated, and there are ongoing negotiations on how oil revenue would be divided and how the two armies would coex- ist.


In addition, it is not clear


whether the tens of thousands of ethnic southerners who live in the north would be stripped of their Sudanese citizenship. In a sign of his concern about


Sudan, Obama called the leader of the south, Salva KiirMayardit, on Dec. 22 to urge him to prevent violence and to work out unre- solved issues related to the peace agreement. Vice President Biden made a similar call on Christmas Eve to Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha, Sudan’s vice president. sheridanm@washpost.com


whompolice identifiedby adiffer- ent spelling and family name as Shamil Okla Ahmed al-Jabouri, was known for openly walking Mosul’s streets despite narrowly surviving a half-dozen assassina- tion attempts. In the two weeks since he had been promoted from commander of Mosul’s western district of al-Borsa to the city’s top police post, officers had carried out several attacks athis direction against the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, capturing dozens of suspects andkilling one. Nearly 50 bombings, gun as-


saults and other attacks against police and civilians have occurred in the past 10 days, apparently culminatinginWednesday’sdead- lyretaliationagainstUgla,author- ities said. Multiple suicide bombers and


gunmencarriedout theattack, the most sophisticated in Mosul in months, said Col. Saad al-Ham- dani. Two of the three bombers reached the interior of the police station, andtheblasts that ensued broughtdownthe building. Hamdani said he feared that


the attack demonstrated the re- newed determination of al-Qaeda in Iraq to operate inMosul. “They have comehere, theyare targeting here, because they have been strangled in Baghdad. Everything isquiet therebecauseof thepoliti- cal agreement,” he said, referring to the creation of a unity govern- ment this month that allowed PrimeMinisterNouri al-Maliki to begina secondterm. Mosul and the surrounding


province of Nineveh are a micro- cosmof Iraq’smost explosive and unresolved conflicts on the eve of the U.S. military’s last scheduled year in Iraq. Kurdish and Sunni Arableadersbattleoveradisputed border; provincial and central government officials wrestle for control; local Sunni-dominated police and federal Shiite-con- trolled army units communicate poorly andaredistrustedbymany residents; and insurgents try to capitalize with violence that pits one groupagainst another. Thousands of U.S. troops re-


main on the fault line, overseeing checkpoints manned by a combi- nation of Kurdish and Arab au- thorities. Some senior U.S. mili- tary officials have suggested that NATO or other international peacekeepersmay need to remain inthe area afterU.S. troopsdepart as scheduledby the endof 2011. InaninterviewwithaWashing-


ton Post reporter during a day- long patrol in July, Ugla said that police had become the most fre- quent targets of Sunni insurgents but that because of shifting alle- giances, it had become difficult to tellwhowas the biggest threat. “They try to attack us every


minute,butwe are always chasing them,” he said. “Mosul gavemany sacrifices. It is tirednow. It is sad.” Ugla was not always above the


AUSTRALIA


Flooding in northeast prompts evacuations Australia’s military cleared a


town in the country’s northeast Wednesday, airlifting the entire population of 300 people by heli- copter from an area where waters were continuing to rise after days of drenching rain. A total of 1,000 people were


evacuated from central and southern Queensland state, in- cluding from the town of Theo- dore. After days of rain, streets were turned into rivers, with traf- fic signs and rooftops the only thing visible above the high-wa- ter mark in some places. At least two other Queensland


towns—Emerald and Bundaberg — were preparing to evacuate.


VALENTINA PETROVA/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Awoman looks through a frosty bus window in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. Europe has been struggling with travel-snarling weather.IFor photos of the year’s events around the world, go to wapo.st/yearphoto.


Flooding has shut down about


300 roads across Queensland, in- cluding two major highways to the state capital, Brisbane. —Associated Press


Pakistan works to restore coali- tion: Pakistan’s U.S.-allied ruling party scrambledtokeep its fragile coalition government in power as its senior leaders met with two dissident political partners, urg- ing them to rejoin the cabinet. The secular Muttahida Quami Movement has quit its two cabi- net posts but remains in the


ruling coalition fornow, while the Islamist Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islami (JUI) party said it would defect to the opposition. A JUI leader reit- erated Wednesday that it would not return unless the prime min- ister quits or is fired.


China says party alonemay com- bat graft: China’s Communist Party will not cede control of efforts to fight graft, the govern- ment said, effectively ruling out independent courts tackling a problem it has said is so severe it could threaten party rule. Critics


say the fight against graft is ham- pered by the lack of an indepen- dent judiciary and news media.


Colombian drug trafficker found dead: Ending a years-long man- hunt, troops in Colombia have found the corpse of Pedro “The Knife” Guerrero, one of the coun- try’s top right-wing paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers,Pres- ident Juan Manuel Santos said. Guerrero was thought to have been fatally wounded in a gun battle last week inMeta state.


—From news services


fray. He responded brusquely whenthe reporter askedhimafter a tour of the city why his officers had beaten a suspected al-Qaeda inIraq informant thatday. “If he was beaten, to hell with


him,”Uglasaid. “Stopaskingthese questions.” “The judicial system takes the


side of the terrorists,” he added. “It’s a revolvingdoor.Somepolice- man’s blood boils because he lost his cousin or brother or friend.He mighthit [thedetainee] intheface or with a stick, and the terrorist goes to the judge and says he was beaten.” With Ugla’s death, said Abdul-


Raheem al-Shemeri, head of the province’s security panel, Mosul has lost “a sword” that had sought to chase away al-Qaeda inIraq. davisa@washpost.com


Correspondent Leila Fadel inNewYork and special correspondentsMarwan Alanie inMosul and AliQeis in Baghdad contributed to this report.


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2010


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