Dr. Wilfried Buchta

In December 2006 Wilfried Buchta was sent out to the provinces Hilla and Najaf in sourthern Iraq to conduct a one-week fact-finding-mission.

The goal was to speak to the respective governors and determine the best approach for UN aid agencies to provide more effective support to local authorities. Here Buchta is talking to the provincial governor of Hilla.

Southern Iraq/Najaf, December 2006

Wilfried Buchta on his fact-finding-mission in Hilla/Najaf together with his bodyguards. Without their protection missions of this kind would have been absolute suicide. But still, there was no guarantee for his safety since the remaining risk was still considerable. 

South Iraq/Najaf, December 2006

Wilfried Buchta during a friendly conversation with Abu Gilal, the provincial governor of Najaf.

The city with the same name, Najaf, is also the place where Hussein-Ali Sistani, the highest Shiite Grand Ayatollah, resides and where the gravesite of the first Imam of the Shia, Imam Ali, is located at. Imam Ali is worshipped by all Shiites many of whom make a pilgrimage to his tomb, seeking his grace and interceding with God on their behalf in their after-life. 

South Iraq/Najaf, December 2006

Before his departure one more final photo for his Iraqi conversational partners in Najaf. Wilfried Buchta poses with the cannoneer of the US helicopter that is about to take him back to Baghdad shortly afterwards. 

April 2006

On a FOB (Forward Operation Base) of the US armed forces on the desert edge of the city of Najaf, the theological center of Iraq. UNAMI Delegation Leader Ashraf Qazi and Buchta on a negotiation mission, surrounded by bodyguards from the UN-Fiji-regiment and US soldiers. The main goal of the mission is to convince Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-US leader of the Shiite nationalist Sadr movement, of the usefulness of political moderation.

April 2006

Group photo at the end negotiations (from left to right): Wilfried Buchta, Muqtada al-Sadr, UNAMI Director Ashraf Qazi and Dr. Kishore Mandhyan, the Indian director of UNAMI's Political Affairs Office in Baghdad.

April 2006

Portrait photo of Muqtada al-Sadr. The Sadr movement he leads has 2 million Shiite followers in the slums of large cities, particularly Baghdad. Sadr's orders are followed by 60,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army, a militant and heavily armed militia that was responsible for the murder of numerous Sunni militia members and civilians in the Sunni-Shiite civil war from 2006-2008.

April 2006

The negotiations ended with a relaxed group discussion with the closest political advisors to Muqtada al-Sadr in the garden of his house. Participants (from right to left): Buchta, Kishore Mandyan, Salah al-Ubaydi, director of al-Sadr’s PR department, Riyadh al-Nuri, brother-in-law of al-Sadr, and Mustafa al-Yaqubi, political advisor to al-Sadr. Important to know: Six months later, Riyadh al-Nuri was shot to death by renegades of the Mahdi Army. A warning to al-Sadr by Iran's foreign intelligence service, that getting too close to the USA can have fatal consequences.

Baghdad, May 2006

With UNAMI Director Ashraf Qazi on a mediation mission in Rusafa on the east bank of the Tigris, in the middle of the Red Zone of Baghdad. The meeting took place at the mausoleum of Abdul-Qadir Gilani, an Islamic religious complex dedicated to Abdul Qadir Gilani, the founder of the Qadiriyya Sufi order, in Baghdad. The tomb of Gilani, who is also admired by many Arab, Kurdish and Indo-Pakistani Sunnis, is also the seat of the Mufti Board of Administration of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq. Taking part in the mediation are the Sunni Mufti of Iraq, Sheikh Hassan Dabban (first from right), and several representatives of Sunni Sufi brotherhoods. Important to know: The person on the far left in the picture is Mustansir al-Janabi, a Sunni parliamentarian and representative of a Sufi order who has a big influence as well as supporters in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.