Iraqis risk jail time by carrying vital fake IDs

[Barrett808]

Source: McClatchy

Iraqis risk jail time by carrying vital fake IDs
By Hussein Kadhim and Jenan Hussein | McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — They lurk in the pocket or purse of virtually every Iraqi, laminated clues that could land the holders in jail or seal their deaths.

As 16-year-old Muhammad Ali Ibrihim makes his way to school, he carries two ID cards. One is real, and reveals through his tribal name that he's a Shiite Muslim. He shows that card when he's stopped at checkpoints set up by the Shiites of the Mahdi Army militia.

The other is bogus, a forgery that describes him as Umar Ahmed Muhammad, a moniker that labels him a Sunni Muslim. He flashes that card at checkpoints manned by outfits tied to al Qaida and others that are hostile to the Shiite-dominated government.

Without both, he couldn't navigate the obstacles between his home in Baghdad's Khadhimiya neighborhood and his school in the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.

He risks a five-year prison sentence for carrying a fake ID, however. "But that is better than being killed just for being a Shiite," he said.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/17161.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Has the Iraqi government actually imprisoned anyone for this?

Because that's pretty twisted if it has. Wouldn't do much for Maliki's shaky popularity.

[Chemical Bill]

2. Has the US impeached anyone for making this necessary?

It's about time.

Bill

[Barrett808]

3. The Iraqi government has no need for legal process

The Interior Ministry goons take you away in the middle of the night. Sometimes your tortured, mutilated body is found in the street. More often, you just disappear into the gulag.

[Kagemusha]

4. Why would they do that to Shiites with fake ID's.

That's the part I don't get.

[Barrett808]

5. I don't know, but there's a lot of Shi'a-on-Shi'a violence in the south

From the perspective of the central government, one more legal pretext for arrest/abduction couldn't hurt.