(AKI) - Militias in Iraq affiliated to the party of hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will only hand over their weapons if all other militias in the country are also forced to demilitarise, a parliamentarian in al-Sadr's faction has told Adnkronos International (AKI). But parliamentarian Fawzi Akram said the main armed group linked to al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army, should be exempted. "The goverment must immediately adopt measures to disband the militias and integrate their members in the military and civil institutions, without bias or delay," Akram told AKI.
However, Akram said that the definition "militia" did not apply to the main group linked to al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army. This group, unlike the militias "had accepted the political process and is contributing to the disbanding of all the armed groups," he said.
"The al-Sadr faction in its attempt to rid the country of the occupier (the US led multnational force) has adopted the political process after it had in the past followed the military process and appeals for a time table for the withdrawal of the occupying force from Iraq". |