Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Iraq

Iraqi lawmakers threaten vote of no confidence against govt

2012-05-06

BAGHDAD: Four of the most senior political leaders in Iraq's fragile coalition have threatened to bring a vote of no confidence in the government unless "autocratic decision-making" stops, a letter published in a state newspaper yesterday said. Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurd coalition began to creak in December, after US troops left, when the government tried to remove Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al-Mutlaq and issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi. Those incidents intensified long-running tensions between the Sunni and Shiite blocs that have hampered the government's ability to pass key legislation. The Baghdad government and the autonomous Kurdish region are also engaged in a simmering row over oil exports. The four senior lawmakers — Osama Al-Nujaifi, Masoud Barzani, Iyad Allawi and Moqtada Al-Sadr — sent the letter to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's bloc on Thursday, political sources told Reuters. Some of Maliki's opponents, including Barzani and Sadr, have accused him of becoming a dictator and several of his critics say he deliberately sidelines Sunnis and Kurds. The letter outlines eight demands to be met by May 13 to ensure the four leaders' support for Maliki's administration. "In case of a refusal to comply with the principles and frameworks of this agreement, practical steps will be taken, within a period of time not exceeding 15 days, to act upon a vote of no confidence against the government," the letter says. The letter is dated April 28, the last day of a three-day mini-summit held by the leaders during which they said they tried to find a solution to the political impasse. Maliki did not attend the meeting, which was held in the Kurdish capital Arbil. The letter called on the government to stop interfering with the security forces and with the work of Parliament and contained a paragraph criticizing autocratic decision-making. "Putting an end to any kind of one-man decision-making in the government pyramid and a tendency towards autocracy," the sixth demand reads. The letter also demanded that a two-term limit for the post of prime minister be retroactively introduced. Maliki is serving his second four-year term as prime minister. "(This is necessary) in order to ensure a peaceful transfer of power and to establish the foundations and principles of democracy and in order not to allow a climate of dictatorship," it said. The sole Shiite signatory of the letter, Sadr, has a history of acrimonious relations with Maliki. Maliki's bloc met on Thursday and pledged to hold a meeting of all of the coalition's political blocs within a week to hammer out a solution to the crisis, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, chairman of the coalition, said in a statement on his website.

Link

Iraq

Iraq speaker slams govt

2012-01-03

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Parliament speaker warned Monday that human rights violations are putting the country's fragile democracy at risk, the latest pronouncement in a rapidly developing sectarian spat that threatens to destabilize the country after US troops pulled out. The televised comments by Osama Al-Nujaifi, one of the country's top Sunni officials, are the latest salvo in a growing political crisis that was sparked when Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's government issued an arrest warrant for the country's top Sunni politician last month. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, controls the ministries that oversee Iraq's police and military. Some of Iraq's minority Sunnis, who fear being marginalized, accuse the prime minister of using the security forces to try to consolidate power. "The armed forces should not be a tool to repress people and the armed forces should not interfere in political matters," Nujaifi said. "Human rights will not become a reality in a situation where the political process is snarled ... Losing these rights will destroy democracy." Nujaifi also cautioned against a politicized security force, amid accusations that units have surrounded the homes of senior Sunni politicians inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "The priority of the army should not change from training and raising its combat level to seeking political power and supporting parties," Nujaifi said. The Parliament speaker, a member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, Al-Maliki's main political rivals, spoke a day before Parliament was scheduled to hold its first session of the new year. Iraqiya suspended its participation in Parliament last month to protest Al-Maliki's control of key posts, particularly those overseeing security forces.

Link

Iraq

Study: Invasion led to spike in Iraq widows

2011-09-19

[Arab News] A study released Sunday by a global humanitarian aid organization concluded that three out of every five widows in Iraq lost their husbands in the years of violence that followed the 2003 invasion. The study by Los Angeles-based Relief International found that about 10 percent of the estimated 15 million women who live in Iraq are widows. Among them, 59 percent have lost their husbands during the US-led war. The study warned that criminal gangs and terrorist groups might try to recruit desperate widows, and that ignoring their suffering could lead them to prostitution, drugs and terrorism. "The Iraqi state has neglected the widows with their enormous problems, and the solutions lie in the establishing of bodies to take care of and solve the problems of these women," the report said. The report was released at a conference in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... where parliament speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi pledged to help widows through job opportunities, salaries and loans to help them start small businesses. "The misery of those widows has an impact on the whole society," Al-Nujaifi said. "This catastrophe is growing, and its danger will threaten our values." In a small room in eastern Storied Baghdad where she lives with her four children, widow Wafiya Hussein said she depends on relatives' donations to keep her family alive. Her husband was killed in a Storied Baghdad kaboom in 2009 as he was heading to work. "I receive no assistance from the government, and I cannot work due to my illnesses," said Hussein, 41, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. "Our situation is difficult," she said, pleading for government support to help raise her children, including a crippled son. Also Sunday, a statement by the Integrity Commission said Iraq has recovered $116 million from French bank accounts that were registered to a former official in Saddam Hussein's regime. The commission did not identify who the Saddam aide was, or if he is still alive. Saddam and his aides amassed huge amounts of personal wealth during his 24-year reign.

Link

Iraq

Al-Maliki calls for early local poll

2011-03-02

[Arab News] : Iraq's prime minister called for new provincial elections Monday following anti-government protests that killed 14 people last week in a demonstration of the simmering anger many Iraqis feel at a government they say fails to provide basic services. Nuri Al-Maliki told a news conference he would ask the Parliament to pass a law allowing for the early elections for the councils that rule Iraq's 18 provinces and said the move was a response to the people's demands for change. Elections for control of Iraq's provinces are held every four years. The last ones were held in 2009 and moving them forward would require parliamentary approval. The decision already has the support of the Parliament speaker, Osama Al-Nujaifi, who said Sunday that he was also proposing such a move. But its unclear whether there would be enough support within the Parliament to hold the vote early and if so, how quickly a legislative body that took months to pass the last election law would act. Having just secured a second term as prime minister, Al-Maliki is under intense pressure to show he's addressing the demands of a population angry with a lack of government services, a scarcity of jobs and rampant corruption. Thousands of Iraqis protested in at least twelve cities on Friday, many in demonstrations that turned violent, as protesters clashed with authorities, set fire to government buildings and toppled concrete barriers. Al-Maliki said the decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting Sunday "to discuss people's demands calling for reforms." He did not specify how quickly the provincial elections should be held. Al-Maliki also called on parliament to dissolve many local city councils in towns and districts where members are appointed and not elected. The prime minister also raised the specter that the upcoming Arab League summit slated to take place at the end of March in Storied Baghdad for the first time in years could be delayed. But he said he was optimistic the summit would still be held and that the vaporous Arab League is insisting on holding it in Iraq. He cautioned, however, that Arab League foreign ministers would meet later this week, and could decide to change the date. "A decision might be taken" to delay the summit, Al-Maliki said, adding that Iraq wouldn't object to a postponement of one or two months. Before turmoil began rippling through the Middle East starting with the overthrow of the Tunisian government, the biggest concern over the Arab Summit was whether Storied Baghdad would be safe enough for such a stream of high-profile visitors. Alluding to the violence taking place in Libya and the problems sweeping almost every other Middle Eastern country, Al-Maliki said Storied Baghdad is safe to receive guests. "We could say that Iraq is the one of the most secure countries at this current time," he said.

Link

Iraq

Lawmaker blasts asylum offers for Iraqi Christians

2010-11-24

[Arab News] A Christian politician called on Iraq's government Tuesday to better protect its dwindling Christian community, lambasting the nations that have offered asylum to the minority as meddling in Iraq's problems. The comments by politician Younadem Kana, from the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul, come after a spate of violent attacks on Iraqi Christians -- including a Catholic church attack last month that killed 68 people. Earlier this week, two Christian brothers in Kana's hometown were fatally shot by unknown gunnies who raided their auto mechanic shop. Officials in France and Germany have offered asylum to Iraq's Christians, an estimated one million of whom have already left their homeland since 2003. More than a third of the 53,700 Iraqis who have been given asylum to the US since 2007 are Christian, according to the US Embassy in Storied Baghdad, even though they only make up an estimated 5 percent of the population. "We demand the government be up to its responsibility of protecting its people -- otherwise the crimes targeting Christians will continue," Kana told a Parliament session on Tuesday. He said calls from France and Germany should be "rejected" and claimed they are "linked to foreign agendas that aim to deplete Iraq's Christian community." Kana also accused "political agendas" within the Shiite-led government of ignoring pleas to help Iraqi Christians. "We found no response, just silence," he said. Parliament Speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Mohammedan also from Mosul, agreed to consider a resolution to better protect Christians to keep them in Iraq. He called the issue "one of the most critical that Iraq is experiencing now." Mosul is a former Al-Qaeda stronghold about 360 km northwest of Storied Baghdad.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-5 More