This is the last straw.
The new Iraqi government is contemplating an amnesty for insurgents who fought American-led forces, including those who have killed soldiers, as a means of dividing rebel forces. But the plan has met strong opposition from some senior American officials and some Iraqis within the interim administration installed last week when sovereignty was officially handed over. Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, is due to announce an amnesty programme this week. The aim will be to draw a line under the US-led occupation and effectively legitimise those who fought it. "If he [a fighter] was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," said Georges Sada, Mr Allawi’s spokesman, at the weekend. "We will give them freedom." Mr Allawi’s main goal is to "start everything from new", he said, by giving a second chance to rebel fighters who hand in their weapons and throw their weight behind the new government.
There was "still heavy discussion" about whether killers should be included but Mr Sada suggested that mistakes by Paul Bremer, the former US administrator who disbanded the Iraqi army, had forced some people into joining the insurgency. "Some people were cheated, some were misled," he said. "Some did this because they had no salaries, no food, no bread."
| But somehow they managed to come up with guns? Perhaps they should consider selling the guns to buy bread? |
Mr Allawi’s amnesty is designed to isolate the insurgents into a hardcore rump that can be depicted as anti-Iraqi rather than anti-American. In practice, few would have been prosecuted anyway and the identities of those who killed American soldiers are for the most part unknown. "This Iraq now is a new Iraq. It’s for every Iraqi citizen to be part of the new and democratic Iraq," said Mr Allawi in a television interview with ABC News. "Anybody who respects the rule of law and the human rights is welcome to be part of Iraq. Anybody who does not is clearly not welcome."
Mr Allawi is also expected to announce the restoration of the death penalty and also curfew laws in the areas that have suffered the greatest unrest. American sources said the US state department, which now holds sway in Iraq after the dissolution of the Pentagon-sponsored Coalition Provisional Authority, also wanted the new government to issue statements condemning Israel as a way of gaining popularity at home and in the Arab world. Any form of full amnesty would be vigorously opposed by the Pentagon and many American generals whose troops have been killed. Hamid Alkifaey, the head of public relations for the new government, said that this had been recognised. "You can’t kill American soldiers and just think it can be pardoned," he said.
An American official said: "We have to give Allawi a chance to do it his way. We won’t like everything he does but as long as there is a basic respect for overall human rights then we will not block his initiatives. He needs to be seen as his own man. Besides, the past 15 months have shown that sometimes pragmatism rather than a doctrinaire approach is likely to yield better results. If Allawi can help to achieve stability then we may be prepared to overlook some of the messier details."
Mr Allawi has also indicated that he hopes to entice Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric who led an anti-American uprising in April, into politics. "He is looking for an amnesty," Mr Allawi said. "He is looking to be part of the political process. He is willing . . . to dismantle the militias that he has formed." But last night a statement from Sadr pledged to resist "oppression and occupation", saying the interim government was "illegitimate".
That worked well, didn't it?
This story's datelined today, but I think it's two or three days old. |
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