Iraq lawmakers pass key budget and amnesty laws
(Adds U.S. embassy, multinational forces statement paragraph 5)
By Ahmed Rasheed
BAGHDAD, Feb 13 (Reuters) - 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. It allows for holding provincial elections by Oct. 1 in which parties who boycotted previous polls could win some local power.
U.S. officials, who have been urging Iraq's leaders to match gains in security with movement on the legislative front, were quick to applaud passage of the laws but said more work lay ahead.
"Literally in the last 24 hours these three big major laws were passed, which I think is clearly a big deal, a big step, and made in great part possible by the security that they've had," Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in testimony to Congress in Washington.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Multi-National Forces in Iraq said in a joint statement: "There is still much important work ahead for the people of Iraq and their government. There is also still more to learn about how this legislation will be implemented."
Scores of lawmakers had stormed out of the Iraqi 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, 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.
BITTERNESS OVER BUDGET
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 murder. It only applies to prisoners in Iraqi custody.
MPs said inmates who had spent longer than six months in prison without being charged would be freed. So would prisoners who had been charged but not appeared before a judge for a year.
Lawmakers had also spent weeks wrangling bitterly over the level of spending on the largely autonomous Kurdish region.
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.
In Basra, kidnappers who seized a CBS News journalist and interpreter in Iraq this week have freed the interpreter, negotiators said. The journalist would hopefully be released within 24 hours, said Majid al-Abadi, a local judge involved in talks to free the journalist, who police say is British.
Police said the men were seized from a city hotel on Sunday. (Additional reporting by Mike Holden, Aws Qusay, Tim Cocks and Mohammed Abbas in Baghdad, and David Morgan in Washington; Writing by Dean Yates, Editing by Sean Maguire and Sami Aboudi)
By Ahmed Rasheed
BAGHDAD, Feb 13 (Reuters) - 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. It allows for holding provincial elections by Oct. 1 in which parties who boycotted previous polls could win some local power.
U.S. officials, who have been urging Iraq's leaders to match gains in security with movement on the legislative front, were quick to applaud passage of the laws but said more work lay ahead.
"Literally in the last 24 hours these three big major laws were passed, which I think is clearly a big deal, a big step, and made in great part possible by the security that they've had," Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in testimony to Congress in Washington.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Multi-National Forces in Iraq said in a joint statement: "There is still much important work ahead for the people of Iraq and their government. There is also still more to learn about how this legislation will be implemented."
Scores of lawmakers had stormed out of the Iraqi 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, 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.
BITTERNESS OVER BUDGET
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 murder. It only applies to prisoners in Iraqi custody.
MPs said inmates who had spent longer than six months in prison without being charged would be freed. So would prisoners who had been charged but not appeared before a judge for a year.
Lawmakers had also spent weeks wrangling bitterly over the level of spending on the largely autonomous Kurdish region.
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.
In Basra, kidnappers who seized a CBS News journalist and interpreter in Iraq this week have freed the interpreter, negotiators said. The journalist would hopefully be released within 24 hours, said Majid al-Abadi, a local judge involved in talks to free the journalist, who police say is British.
Police said the men were seized from a city hotel on Sunday. (Additional reporting by Mike Holden, Aws Qusay, Tim Cocks and Mohammed Abbas in Baghdad, and David Morgan in Washington; Writing by Dean Yates, Editing by Sean Maguire and Sami Aboudi)
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