The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> ANOTHER Iraqi Conference

Posted by Maggie (Guest) - Saturday, December 16 2006, 1:58:00 (CET)
from 70.135.140.27 - 70.135.140.27 -

Windows XP -

Internet Explorer
Website:
Website title:

Iraqi conference seeks to end sectarian bloodshed
By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Iraq holds a national conference on Saturday designed to halt mounting sectarian violence that has raised fears of civil war and been a major issue behind U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to review his strategy.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi said on Friday Bush had called for decisive action to halt the sectarian bloodletting when they met in Washington this week.

"President Bush is very worried and annoyed (about the sectarian violence)," Hashemi told Al Jazeera television.

"He made it clear to me saying, 'We cannot remain silent toward the situation, we cannot accept that Iraqis kill each other. Decisive measures are needed to stop the killings. Iraqis are facing a limited chance'," said Hashemi.

The conference will bring together Kurdish, Shi'ite Muslim and Sunni Arab politicians from the ruling coalition in Baghdad and figures from Saddam Hussein's former Baath party who have been living abroad since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

They are expected to discuss issues ranging from the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops to sectarian militias.

"Around 200 figures have been invited to this conference," government spokesman Ali Dabagh said on Friday.

The Shi'ite-led coalition government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who took office seven months ago, has said it would not talk to armed groups with "Iraqi blood on their hands."

SECTARIAN ACCUSATIONS

Insurgents draw for support from Iraq's minority Sunni Arab community, once dominant under Saddam. Sunni leaders accuse militias from the Shi'ite majority of infiltrating the police to carry out kidnappings and killings.

Since the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in February, thousands of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian attacks and this has complicated U.S. troop withdrawal plans.

Bush is expected to announce his new policy on Iraq early next year. His Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress in November mid-term elections partly due to voter disillusionment over Iraq.

"As we've said many times, reconciliation is obviously one of the key challenges the (Iraqi) government faces," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters in Washington on Friday.

Among issues to be discussed in a series of workshops on Saturday will be a process known as debaathification, which bans former members of Saddam's party from taking part in public office and the military, a major Sunni complaint.

"The main goal is to reduce the circle of those included in debaathification to include ... only those who committed crimes against Iraqis," said Abbas Bayati, from the powerful Shi'ite Alliance.

Iraq has held conferences before designed to bring about reconciliation but they failed to stop sectarian bloodletting or bring into the fold some Sunni groups who have boycotted the U.S.-backed political process.

Some Iraqi officials said they did not expect the conference, which takes place a year after Iraq's first elections for a full-term parliament since the U.S.-led invasion, to produce firm results.

"This conference is just a waste of time," one government official said on condition of anonymity.

"Let them talk. More talking will not harm anyone. But I doubt there would be results," said the official.

(Baghdad newsroom, editing by Ralph Gowling)

---------------------

- BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic:
No replies.

Content-length: 3921
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/vnd.ms-excel, applicatio...
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-language: en-us
Cache-control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf5/rkvsf_core.php?.2CWs.
User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; sbcydsl 3.12; YPC 3.2.0; FunWebProducts; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; yplus 5.1...