New Iraq PM promises amnesty for insurgents

[DoYouEverWonder]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=535599

27 June 2004

Days before he is installed as Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi has expressed understanding for Iraqis who have acted against the US-led occupation "out of a sense of desperation", and says that he plans to offer them an amnesty.

Writing exclusively in this newspaper just ahead of the official handover of sovereignty to his administration on Wednesday, Dr Allawi seeks to establish some distance between himself and his backers, Tony Blair and George Bush. He implicitly criticises the US decision to disband the Iraqi army immediately after the war, warns that Iraqi democracy "should not be a replica of an imported model from the US, Britain, or ... any other country", and stresses that the world must carry out its pledges of economic help.

The most startling departure, however, is the interim Prime Minister's comment that his government "will make a clear distinction between those Iraqis who have acted against the occupation out of a sense of desperation, and those foreign terrorist fundamentalists and criminals whose sole objective is to kill and maim innocent people and to see Iraq fail".

The objective will be "to reach out to the former group in a national reconciliation effort and invite them to join us in a fresh start to build our country's future together, while at the same time isolating and defeating the latter group". To achieve this "we are drawing up plans to provide amnesty to Iraqis who supported the so-called resistance without committing crimes".

[the Kelly Gang]

1. oh sure...they are really going to step forward aren't they ?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. He got the idea from the Saudis

I'm sure the terrorists will be just crawling out of the woodwork, to take advantage of this great opportunity.

[bemildred]

3. Right. What happened to "hunt them down and kill them"?

Can the troops come home yet?