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Iraqi Parliament passes new budget after
delays
13.2.2008
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February 13, 2008
BAGHDAD, Iraq, — Iraqi lawmakers
achieved a major breakthrough on Wednesday, passing
the 2008 budget after weeks of delay and an amnesty
law that could lead to the release of thousands of
prisoners from the country's jails.
Parliament also passed a provincial powers law that
will define ties between Baghdad and local
authorities. That paves the way for provincial
elections to be held by October 1.
"I'd like to congratulate the ... government and
people of Iraq for these significant
accomplishments," the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan
Crocker, told reporters.
Scores of lawmakers had stormed out of the
legislature on Tuesday evening, blocking a vote on
the bills in a sign of the deep distrust between the
country's Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish
politicians. Some MPs said parliament should be
disbanded and new elections held.
But parliament convened again on Wednesday and
despite a walkout by some lawmakers, managed to
overcome a row over voting procedures to pass the
three measures as a package.
"We have proven today that Iraqis are just one
bloc," said parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani, a
Sunni Arab.
Washington has pressed Iraqi leaders to pass
legislation to help heal sectarian divisions that
have festered during a Sunni Arab insurgency against
U.S. forces and savage violence between majority
Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.
The laws passed on Wednesday are not among several
key benchmarks sought by the United States, but the
measures, especially the amnesty law, would still
form an important component of reconciliation, U.S.
officials have said.
The main Sunni Arab bloc, the Accordance Front, said
passage of the amnesty law would help accelerate its
return to the Shi'ite-led government of Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The Front, which quit the government in August, has
long demanded the release of security detainees.
U.S. forces and Iraqi authorities each hold more
than 23,000 prisoners,www.ekurd.net
many of them Sunni Arabs
behind the insurgency against the American-backed
government that erupted after the overthrow of
Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"We have no doubt that passing this law will have a
remarkably positive effect in speeding up the return
of the Accordance Front to the government," said
Salim al-Jubouri, a lawmaker and spokesman for the
bloc.
The government has said prisoners under
investigation, on trial or convicted could be
eligible to be freed. The pardon would exclude those
convicted of major crimes such as terrorism. It only
applies to prisoners in Iraqi custody.
Lawmakers had also spent weeks wrangling bitterly
over the level of spending on the largely autonomous
Kurdistan region.
Some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab lawmakers had said
Kurdistan should get less money based on current
population estimates.
Officials had said the prolonged delay in approving
the $48 billion budget was holding up vital spending
at a time when the United States is urging the
government to jumpstart the economy to take
advantage of falls in violence.
In recent days, leaders of the political blocs
agreed to vote on all three measures as a package
because of mutual suspicion that if one was voted on
separately and approved, the faction that wanted
that most would renege on the rest.
Parliament also passed a law last month that will
allow former members of Saddam's Baath party to
regain their jobs in the government and military, a
key demand of Sunni Arabs who were dominant under
the former dictator.
But Maliki's government has struggled to make
headway on other key laws, especially legislation
that would equitably share the country's vast oil
reserves.
Some information for this report was provided by AP
and Reuters.
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