Iraq the model

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

No amnesty for killers, period!

Finally, Prime Minister Maliki puts an end to the confusion and ambiguity that was associated with his reconciliation plan.
He said it clearly that amnesty will not be offered to killers of coalition soldiers:

The amnesty doesn't include those who have killed Iraqis or even coalition forces because those soldiers came to Iraq under international agreements to help Iraq

I feel better about Maliki's plan now; mostly because with this point clarified, the government will avoid falling in the serious contradiction we warned from.

But this raises an interesting question; if amnesty is not going to be offered to killers of MNF soldiers, Iraqi soldiers or Iraqi civilians then to whom?

With trigger-pullers excluded, maybe amnesty will be given to the facilitators and sympathizers; those who provided safe houses, transportation and facilities to the insurgents. If this is the case and if those facilitators accept the offer I think it will significantly reduce the ability of insurgents to carryout their operations and the effect will be more profound on foreign terrorists who depend largely on local facilitators.

Update:

Three more insurgent groups have decided to join Maliki's reconciliation project, according to al-Sabah:

Al-Sabah's sources revealed that the three groups that announced their supports for Maliki's initiative were Ammoriya Forces, Jaish al-Mujahideen and the Brigades of Saladin. This brings to ten the number of militant groups that responded positively to the initiative, our sources expressed hopes that more groups will join in in the coming days.

Vice president Dr. Tariq al-Hashimi told al-Sabah that he proposed to organize a meeting for tribal powers to empower the good relationships among the sons of the one nation and to smother the fires of sectarian rift.
Sheikh AbdulSalam al-Dulaimi said that more than 30 sheikhs who are prominent tribal leaders in al-Anbar region are about to announce an 'honor pledge' that forbids bloodletting.

So far things seem to be progressing smoothly, but nice words and promises mean very little until they translate into real work; which is my hope.