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Iraq MPs rebel against budget
23.1.2008
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January
23, 2008
BAGHDAD, -- Iraqi MPs are refusing to ratify
the 2008 budget, a parliamentary statement said,
reflecting the deep political divisions still
crippling Iraq despite stuttering steps towards
reconciliation.
Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani called leaders
of the various political blocs to a meeting Monday
to urge them to endorse the budget, saying the delay
was harming the interests of the Iraqi people, the
statement said.
But the leaders refused to budge from their
positions, according to the statement issued late on
Monday.
Eventually an exasperated Mashhadani agreed to ask
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and Finance
Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh to appear before
parliament for a second time to explain the
allocations in the 48 billion dollar budget, which
remains stalled three weeks into the new year.
Fadhila parliamentary leader Hasan al-Shimmari told
Mashhadani his Shiite bloc was unwilling to vote for
the budget because it "does did not cater to the
needs of Iraqis and "there are unjustifiable
allocations."
The head of the Sadrist bloc, Nassar al-Rubaie, said
his MPs rejected the budget because it did not give
enough money to teachers nor did it resolve the
issue of monthly food rations to citizens, which are
being reduced.
Most of the unease, however, stems from a decision
to allocate 17 percent of the budget to the oil-rich
autonomous Kurdish region and on top of that to pay
for its peshmerga security force from the national
defence budget.
Osama al-Nujaifi of the Iraqi National List led by
former prime minister Iyad Allawi, called for
substantial changes to the budget before it is put
to the vote,www.ekurd.net
saying the government
had not given any final financial statements for the
past several years.
"Kurdistan's share of 17 percent is not fair and the
peshmerga allocations should rather be taken from
Kurdistan's allocations, not from the defence
ministry," Nujaifi said.
Mahmud al-Azzawi of the independent Arab bloc
agreed. "There are many problems with the budget,
including the amount of allocation for the Kurdistan
region and the peshmerga," he said.
Fuad Masoom, head of the Kurdish alliance bloc,
insisted that the peshmerga be paid from the defence
ministry budget.
MP Iyad al-Samarrai, head of parliament's finance
committee and MP for the powerful Sunni National
Concord Front, accused the government of evading
questions about the budget and of not being
accountable for its spending.
Another MP, Haider al-Ibadi, head of parliament's
investment and economy committee, said the budget
"does not give a clear strategy of how unemployment
and poverty will be overcome."
After first threatening to put the budget to the
vote without further discussion, speaker Mashhadani
agreed to go back to the cabinet to ask for
financial statements for the past few years and for
Saleh and Solagh to come before the house again to
be grilled on their figures.
The deadlock over the budget is a reflection of the
deep divisions also surrounding the draft oil and
gas law, which has been stalled before parliament
for more than a year due to squabbling over the
revenues from the country's rich crude reserves.
In a rare gesture of reconciliation, however, Shiite
and Sunni MPs on January 12 unanimously passed a law
allowing certain ex-officials of Saddam Hussein's
Baath party to return to public life.
US President George W. Bush hailed the passing of
the Justice and Accountability Law as an "important
step toward reconciliation."
In a visit to Baghdad last week, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice praised the Iraqi parliament
for passing the long-stalled bill but urged more
political progress from Maliki's government.
"There is still a lot of work to be done," she said.
AFP
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