.Iraq official vows to clean house
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's interior minister, under pressure from Western officials and some Iraqi leaders to purge the ministry of sectarian influence, said Friday that he was preparing to reshuffle its leadership and that he had the political backing to carry out the plan.
When he took office in late May, the minister, Jawad al-Bolani, vowed to clean house at the agency, which oversees the nation's police forces. Western officials and Sunni Arab leaders have accused the ministry of harboring senior managers who, during the previous government, tolerated or encouraged the infiltration of Shiite militias into the police forces.
Although al-Bolani has made some strides toward accomplishing his reform goals, including firing thousands of employees, Western officials and some Iraqi officials have said he has lacked the political support to conduct the necessary purges, particularly at the upper levels of the ministry.
But al-Bolani said Friday that he had the support of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to make all the necessary changes among his top commanders.
"We have an urgent need," al-Bolani said during the interview, his first in-depth conversation with Western media outlets. "We have to have changes at this level."
He added, "All the senior employees of the Interior Ministry are in a cycle of change."
Al-Bolani did not elaborate on his plans but said his recommendations were being reviewed by a governmental committee.
According to American officials close to the ministry, among the commanders al-Bolani may replace is Adnan al-Asadi, the deputy minister of administration, who is suspected of abetting the Shiite militias. Al-Bolani denied those assertions Friday.
The officials withheld their names because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Al-Bolani's appointment was praised at the time by Western officials because he was viewed as more independent from the ruling Shiite parties than other leading candidates for the job. American advisers and Iraqi officials say he appears committed to cleaning up the ministry.
The minister insisted in the interview, with reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, that he was trying to transform the ministry of 167,000 employees from top to bottom.
Al-Bolani said he had fired more than 3,000 employees since he took over--some for corruption and human-rights violations--and that he referred 300 to 600 of those cases to the Iraqi court system.
He said he did not approve of the militias, calling them "a new threat to the political process of Iraq." Among them, he said, was the Mahdi Army, a force loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
On Friday, Sadr issued a vaguely worded statement that said he would publicly repudiate any militia member who conducted attacks "with no right." His militia has been accused of being complicit in the wave of sectarian killings that have engulfed the country and is widely believed to have infiltrated the Interior Ministry forces.
"It was circulated that there are groups or individuals from the Mahdi Army who attack Iraqi people with no right," read the statement, released by Sadr's office in Najaf.
If such accusations are proven, it added, Sadr "will announce their names and disown them without any hesitation or fear."
The statement did not say what constituted a rightful attack. But Hazem al-Araji, a Sadr representative in Baghdad, said later in a telephone interview: "We don't give permission to anyone to fight any of the Iraqi people." He said the organization would denounce "anyone who killed any Iraqi under the name of the Mahdi Army."
In violence across Iraq on Friday, gunmen killed six women and two young girls near the mostly Shiite town of Suwayrah, south of Baghdad, as they collected vegetables in a field, The Associated Press reported. Elsewhere, the bodies of 14 construction workers, their throats slit and their hands and legs bound, were found in an orchard near Dhuluiya.
An American soldier was killed by a concealed bomb while on patrol in northern Iraq on Thursday, the military announced Friday.
Chicago Tribune
I will believe it when I see it.
When he took office in late May, the minister, Jawad al-Bolani, vowed to clean house at the agency, which oversees the nation's police forces. Western officials and Sunni Arab leaders have accused the ministry of harboring senior managers who, during the previous government, tolerated or encouraged the infiltration of Shiite militias into the police forces.
Although al-Bolani has made some strides toward accomplishing his reform goals, including firing thousands of employees, Western officials and some Iraqi officials have said he has lacked the political support to conduct the necessary purges, particularly at the upper levels of the ministry.
But al-Bolani said Friday that he had the support of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to make all the necessary changes among his top commanders.
"We have an urgent need," al-Bolani said during the interview, his first in-depth conversation with Western media outlets. "We have to have changes at this level."
He added, "All the senior employees of the Interior Ministry are in a cycle of change."
Al-Bolani did not elaborate on his plans but said his recommendations were being reviewed by a governmental committee.
According to American officials close to the ministry, among the commanders al-Bolani may replace is Adnan al-Asadi, the deputy minister of administration, who is suspected of abetting the Shiite militias. Al-Bolani denied those assertions Friday.
The officials withheld their names because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Al-Bolani's appointment was praised at the time by Western officials because he was viewed as more independent from the ruling Shiite parties than other leading candidates for the job. American advisers and Iraqi officials say he appears committed to cleaning up the ministry.
The minister insisted in the interview, with reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, that he was trying to transform the ministry of 167,000 employees from top to bottom.
Al-Bolani said he had fired more than 3,000 employees since he took over--some for corruption and human-rights violations--and that he referred 300 to 600 of those cases to the Iraqi court system.
He said he did not approve of the militias, calling them "a new threat to the political process of Iraq." Among them, he said, was the Mahdi Army, a force loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
On Friday, Sadr issued a vaguely worded statement that said he would publicly repudiate any militia member who conducted attacks "with no right." His militia has been accused of being complicit in the wave of sectarian killings that have engulfed the country and is widely believed to have infiltrated the Interior Ministry forces.
"It was circulated that there are groups or individuals from the Mahdi Army who attack Iraqi people with no right," read the statement, released by Sadr's office in Najaf.
If such accusations are proven, it added, Sadr "will announce their names and disown them without any hesitation or fear."
The statement did not say what constituted a rightful attack. But Hazem al-Araji, a Sadr representative in Baghdad, said later in a telephone interview: "We don't give permission to anyone to fight any of the Iraqi people." He said the organization would denounce "anyone who killed any Iraqi under the name of the Mahdi Army."
In violence across Iraq on Friday, gunmen killed six women and two young girls near the mostly Shiite town of Suwayrah, south of Baghdad, as they collected vegetables in a field, The Associated Press reported. Elsewhere, the bodies of 14 construction workers, their throats slit and their hands and legs bound, were found in an orchard near Dhuluiya.
An American soldier was killed by a concealed bomb while on patrol in northern Iraq on Thursday, the military announced Friday.
Chicago Tribune
I will believe it when I see it.
posted by madtom at 10:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home