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Iraqi lawmakers demand inquiry of abuse claims

28 October 2010 21:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Iraqi prime minister’s political opponents demanded Thursday for parliament to hold a special session to investigate claims that prisoners have been tortured by his government, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The demands by about 50 members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political alliance also puts more pressure on acting parliament Speaker Fouad Massoum as he weighs how soon to call lawmakers back to work.
Allegations of Iraqi forces brutalizing prison detainees surfaced last week in a cache of nearly 400,000 secret U.S. military documents released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.
The papers cited years of prison abuse reports, including some after Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office in May 2006.
"The representatives of the people should not be any less humane than the international organizations that have called for an investigation," Iraqiya spokesman Haidar al-Mullah told reporters.
He said the inquiry would focus in part on al-Maliki’s oversight of Iraqi security forces in his role as the nation’s commander in chief.
Al-Maliki has attacked the WikiLeaks release as an attempt to malign him as he seeks to clench a second term in office, despite his party narrowly losing national elections more than seven months ago. Since the March 7 vote that Iraqiya won by a slim two-seat edge, al-Maliki has scrabbled to round up allies from other political groups to form a new government â€” and keep his job.
The prime minister recently has tried to portray himself as a national leader above sectarian divisions but the WikiLeaks reports threaten to once again rip open the country’s Sunni-Shiite divide. His office has complained that the documents show no proof that detainees were abused under his watch.
Massoum, the acting parliament speaker, said he will wait until after a Sunday meeting of representatives from Iraq’s major political alliances before announcing when he will call lawmakers back to Baghdad.
He did not immediately respond to an inquiry if he has received Iraqiya’s letter demanding a special session.
Earlier this week, Iraq’s highest court ordered parliament back to work, saying its reluctance to return before the political wrangling produced new leaders, was illegal. The 325 lawmakers have met only once since they were elected for a 20-minute session in June that consisted of a reading from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, the playing of the national anthem and swearing in new members.
Meanwhile, officials said a suicide bomber in the northern Iraq city of Mosul killed one policeman at a checkpoint and injured seven more. In Baghdad, small bombs hidden on the cars of two police officials killed one and sent the other to the hospital.