Najaf's murder mystery

Earlier this month, Max Van Der Stoel, the UN human rights investigator probing charges against Iraq, voiced concern that the recent killings of two Shi'ite clerics in the holy city of Najaf could have been part of an official organised attack on the country's Shi'ite community.

Van Der Stoel said in a statement that he had information indicating that Ayatollah Mirza Ali Al-Gharawi and Ayatollah Murtadha Ali Mohamed Ibrahim Borujerdi were killed after suffering harassment by the Iraqi authorities.

"The aim of the killings appears to be political with the objective of silencing dissent and suppressing opposition," Van Der Stoel said.

Al-Gharawi, 70, his son-in-law and his chauffeur were shot dead by gunmen on 18 June as they travelled from the Muslim Shi'ite holy city of Karbala to Najaf, 100 kilometres southeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Borujerdi was killed on 22 April as he was returning home after night prayers at Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque.

No one has claimed responsibility for either murders and all that can be said for certain about both cases is that no suspects were held and that the investigation results were not made public.

Yet, Shi'ite opposition groups immediately accused the Iraqi authorities of being behind the assassinations, claiming that they were part of a well-orchestrated campaign of intimidation against the most prestigious and powerful Shi'ite theological institution in the world, which has its seat in Najaf.

Iran, which made an official protest at the murders of Gharawi and Borujerdi, both Iranian citizens, warned Iraq that the incidents could negatively affect relations between the two countries. But Tehran was careful not to accuse Baghdad directly of ordering the killings.

Iraq denied any involvement, saying authorities would do their best to arrest the culprits.

Still, the two murders, like the mysterious death in a car crash two years ago of Mohamed Taqi Al-Khoei, the son of the late grand Ayatollah Abu Al-Qassim Al-Khoei, have raised serious suspicions. Regardless of the accusations being made and their ritual denials by those under suspicion, there are important questions to be answered as to who is behind the murders and what the motives are.

Shi'ite opposition groups in exile were quick to denounce the murders as another attempt to force the clerics to abandon Najaf for Iran where the Iranians have their own Shi'ite Institute of Theology in Qum. They say there are now some 5,000 students of Islamic Shari'a who study in Najaf and, if pressure against the top clergy continues, the students will be forced to leave the city which has been the centre of teaching the Shi'ia school of Islamic Shari'a for centuries.

Moreover, some Iraqi Shi'ite leaders privately say that Iran stands to benefit from shifting the seat of Shi'ite theology to Qum, a move that would allow Iran to assume undisputed leadership of the world's Shi'ites.

Iraq has accused "malicious and ill-intentioned foreign parties" of being responsible for the crimes. Such an ambiguous reference to foreign elements was not very helpful, either in resolving the mystery of the murders or in mitigating concerns among Shi'ite conspiracy theorists.