Obstacles diminish for the Sunnis' return to Iraqi gov't
http://www.huanqiu.com 来源：新华网 进入论坛 2007-12-28 09:52
BAGHDAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- After nearly four months since the main Sunni political bloc withdrew from the Shiite-led unity government in Baghdad, positive steps and signs that show up this week may diminish virtually, for the first time, the obstacles that hold the Sunnis up.
The Iraqi cabinet on Wednesday approved the draft of a general amnesty bill for detainees being held in Iraqi prisons, a move that is widely regarded as a positive step forward in the long wayto the stalled national reconciliation between the Shiite and the Sunni Iraqis.
The general pardon draft law approved on Wednesday could pave, despite far from clearing, the way for the Sunnis to return to the fragmentary unity government led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Release of those detainees, mostly Sunni Arabs, is among the main unattended demands of the Iraq Accordance Front (IAF), the largest Sunni bloc in Iraqi parliament, when it pulled out five ministers in addition to one of the two deputy prime ministers from the Shiite-led government in early August.
Though the details of the draft law, including the number and the eligibility of prisoners to be freed, are not immediately revealed, the Sunni Arab leaders see the move as a goodwill gesture from the Shiite-led central government. But they still reserve their judgment before the draft gets approved by the parliament.
Dhafer al-Ani, a senior IAF member of parliament, told reporters that his party looked at the step as "an indication of the government's good intentions" to normalize relations with the IAF.
The chance for the amnesty draft law gets its approval in the Shiite and Kurds dominated Iraqi parliament seems optimistically high, though the details of the draft law will not be brought to parliament for debate until March at the earliest.
Another positive sign emerged on Monday when two main Kurdish parties and the largest Sunni political party signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance trilateral ties in the city of Sulaimaniya in the northern Kurdish region.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by the president of the Kurdish region Mustafa Barzani and the Iraqi Islamic Party, led by the Sunni vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, signed the MoU to "boost ties among them and to foster Iraq's unity."
Activating article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, release of innocent detainees from all Iraqi and American prisons, and calls for political reforms are among the main points agreed in the MoU.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution relates to a local referendum by the end of 2007 on whether the oil-rich and ethnically-mixed Kirkuk will be incorporated into the Kurdish region, which has been strongly opposed by the Turkmens and Arabs in the city.
Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have agreed to postpone the referendum for six months.
The trilateral agreement between the Kurds and the Sunnis is believed to have raised the odds of Sunni parties returning to the Shiite-Kurdish dominated central government.
Hassan al-Sineid, a lawmaker from the Shiite bloc United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), considered the trilateral MoU as "a copy of the agreement of the four-party alliance, and means the door is openedin front of the Islamic Party to integrate into the Four-Party alliance."
The four-party alliance was formed to back al-Maliki's government in August after nearly half of the ministers withdrew from the cabinet. It consists of two Shiite parties, Maliki's Dawaparty and the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and the above-mentioned two Kurdish parties. The four-party alliance holds 136 seats of the 275-seat parliament.
The trilateral MoU also raises the hope of a possible solution to break the current political stalemate, which saw many key draft laws -- including bills to share oil revenue and to allow some members of executed president Saddam Hussein's Baath party to hold government jobs -- have remained mired for months in Iraq's grid locked parliament.
"If the aim of this deal is not to drag the Iraqi Islamic party into the Four-parties alliance, the deal will play a major role in the alteration of the current political balance in Iraq," an Iraqi political analyst who requests not to be named told Xinhua.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraq Accordance Front, which holds 44 seats in the parliament, was quoted as saying at the state-run al-Sabah newspaper that the agreement of the three parties will result in "the appearing of a solution to the current political troubled situation in Iraq."
