Bloodshed splits Iraqi council
April 11, 2004
Iraq's Governing Council yesterday demanded a halt to "collective punishment" in a sign of a split between US-picked Iraqi leaders and American administrators over US military operations.
Abdel Karim Mahud al-Mahamadawi, a secular Shiite member of Iraq's interim Governing Council, met radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia is battling US-led forces in the south.
He said he was suspending his membership in the Iraqi Governing Council until the "bleeding in all Iraq" ended.
Another member, Ghazi al-Yawer, threatened to quit the council over the US Marines' bloody siege of the city of Fallujah, aimed at uprooting Sunni insurgents.
Friday's halt in the Fallujah assault was requested by the council to allow for talks on reducing the violence, US coalition spokesman Dan Senor said.
But a top commander, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, insisted the talks "are not negotiations".
Al-Yawer, a Sunni council member, and the representative of another Sunni member met city leaders on Friday in talks at a Marine base outside Fallujah, council member Mahmoud Othman said.
Al-Yawer said that while he had not taken any formal steps, "I will quit (the council) if the problem is not solved peacefully, because God will not bless a position of power that does not benefit its people".
"If negotiations fail because of the stubbornness of the American side or the failure to adhere to a cease-fire, I will quit 100 per cent," he told Al-Jazeera TV.
This story was found at: smh.com.au |
