US presses Iraq for broad amnesty for insurgents

The Bush administration is pressing the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki to issue a “broad” and “painful” amnesty for insurgents in spite of intense opposition to the proposal from politicians both in Iraq and the US, according to a senior administration official.

Amid growing anxiety in Washington over Iraq’s escalating sectarian violence, the US is advocating more determined moves towards a national reconciliation with the Sunni community that dominates Iraq’s insurgency. It also wants a tougher line on the Shia militias.

“You need the government to move forward with a programme – it should include an amnesty in a broad fashion, a comprehensive amnesty proposal,” the senior US official, who asked not to be named, told the Financial Times. The official was not explicit about the terms of the proposed amnesty, but he said: “No successful amnesty is not painful or sweeping.”

As the US grapples with reversing policy decisions made under the initial occupation authority of Paul Bremer, officials told the FT the Iraqi government should implement major changes in the strategy of weeding out former Ba’ath party members from Iraq’s public administration.

The senior US official said this policy should go from a “broadly wielded to a very narrow focus on a very limited cadre of individuals.”

US pressure on Baghdad to act swiftly has engendered a growing lack of confidence between Mr Maliki and the White House. This appears to have triggered a 15-minute telephone call to the Iraqi prime minister from President George W. Bush on Monday, a call designed to reassure the Iraqi leader that the US was not setting a deadline for his government to stand on its own feet.

The amnesty issue is divisive in both Iraq and the US, where the emotional question of how to honour American war dead – now at 2,750 – has become entangled in the debate over the merits of an early US withdrawal.

The White House has avoided giving explicit endorsement of a sweeping amnesty.

When Mr Maliki initially announced his reconciliation programme in June, members of the US Congress expressed outrage at his proposal to pardon insurgents who had killed US soldiers. Under a barrage of criticism, Mr Maliki backtracked.

However, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy in Baghdad, has supported the concept of a broad amnesty. He said in July he would try to work with Iraqi leaders to “find the right balance between reconciliation and accountability” so that the US dead remained honoured.

Read the rest at the Financial Times