Iraq postpones Amnesty Proclamation
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Iraq's interim government delayed indefinitely an announcement on a possible partial-amnesty deal for low-level insurgents, a spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.

Spokesman George Sada had, earlier said on Sunday that none of the "hard-core" criminals -- including those accused of murder -- would be eligible for amnesty. Only those who were "misled" by the leaders of the insurgency would qualify.

Many questions about a possible amnesty remain, including who would be covered by such a deal and how strict it would be.

Growing Alliance

The interim government hopes to use a limited amnesty to weaken the ties within the insurgency between the former Baathist set-up of Saddam Hussein and the militants, seen as a growing alliance.

Scope and Terms

Iraqi official sources say that an amnesty could cover 5,000 supporters of Saddam Hussein's former regime who are involved in the insurgency against Americans and the interim government. In exchange, they would be asked to disarm and for information leading to the capture or killing of insurgency leaders.

It was not clear if an amnesty would cover Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite Muslim cleric charged by an Iraqi court in the April 2003 murder of a rival. His Mehdi Army militia has battled U.S. and other coalition troops for weeks in the southern Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala and the surrounding area.

Al-Sadr on Friday denounced the interim government in Iraq as no different from the U.S. occupation.

Still, Allawi said on in a taped interview broadcast Sunday that al-Sadr had told the interim government through an intermediary that he wanted to participate in Iraq's new political process.

The Captured Marine is Safe?

An Iraqi Islamic militant group says it is holding a U.S. Marine in "a place of safety," according to a statement from the group read by an Arabic-language television network.

The Islamic Movement said that in exchange for being moved to an undisclosed location, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has pledged not to return to his military unit, the statement said.

The same group one week ago had vowed it would kill the hostage Marine.

Yet another group denied reports that Hassoun had been beheaded. "This statement quoting us is baseless, and it's not true at all," the militant group said in a statement posted on its Web site. Hassoun, an Arabic translator, was last seen June-19.

Bomb Attack

Amid swelling hatred against the coalition, eight more Iraqi civilians were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in attempts to target members of the Iraqi army and Iraqi police force in Baghdad Monday.

Seven were wounded in a bombing in central Baghdad's al-Yarmouk district. He said the attack missed an Iraqi army convoy.

In the other attack, one Iraqi was wounded when a roadside bomb in the Silahk district of northern Baghdad missed an Iraqi police patrol.

Mortar Attack

In Basra, a mortar attack near a British military camp killed one Iraqi and wounded two others, an Iraqi police official said.

Six mortar rounds hit different houses in the al-Ashar district, according to Col. Ali Abdullah. He said the attackers apparently were targeting the camp but missed.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb wounded five Iraqi citizens, according to a coalition military statement. Four of the wounded were reported in stable condition, while the fifth person's condition was more serious, the statement said. Insurgents also attacked a strategic infrastructure target.

Pipeline Sabotaged

A pipeline that feeds oil from Iraq's southern fields to refineries in the central and northern parts of the country was sabotaged, a Ministry of Oil spokesman said on Monday.

An improvised explosive device went off Sunday beneath a secondary pipeline running parallel to the primary one, the spokesman said. A fire was being allowed to burn itself out Monday on a stretch between Karbala and Mussayib, south of Baghdad.

Of Saddam's Trial

Ziad Khassawneh, a Jordanian lawyer for Saddam Hussein, said Monday that the former dictator cannot get a fair trial because the courts and the laws are illegitimate.

He said on CNN's "Late Edition" that the defense team has yet to be allowed to see its client despite "all the requests made to all the entities and the free people of the world."

"Everything is done in secrecy. The occupation, the tribunal, interim government, everything is a violation of the forms of all the laws of international, legitimate laws," Khassawneh said.

Legitimate President

Khassawneh argued that Saddam is the legitimate President of Iraq, the interim government was illegally installed by an occupying force and the court that will try him was formed by "illegitimate means."

Yet Allawi told a news channel that his government would insist on a fair trial for Saddam, "unlike what he did to his victims in Iraq."

"What has happened here is a great sign of a civilized approach to criminal suspects who have massive records of mass killings, massive graves, and using of weapons of mass destruction against the Iraqi people," he said.

Legal custody of Saddam was transferred from American authority to the Iraqis last week, though he remains in the physical custody of the U.S. military.

The judge at Saddam's first court appearance Thursday ended the hearing by saying the deposed President of Iraq would be allowed to meet with his attorneys. No time, however, has been set for such a meeting.

Related Developments

A spokesman for the interim Iraqi Interior Ministry said Ihsan Kareem, who was in charge of investigating allegations against the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, was the intended target of the bomb that killed him in early July.

The probe shows that Kareem, president of the Finance Ministry's audit board, was deliberately killed by an improvised explosive device attached to the underside of his car, the spokesman said.

NATO Team in Baghdad

A delegation from NATO arrived in Baghdad on Monday to begin a five-day, fact-finding mission to determine how the security alliance can best fulfill its commitment to the Iraqi government, including possible technical assistance.

The team is led by U.S. Adm. Gregory Johnson, commander of the Joint Force Command based in Naples, Italy, who will report to the NATO council.

Allawi Rebuffs

In other comments on a television program, Allawi rebuffed suggestions by critics that he is a U.S. puppet, saying he was fighting Saddam "when America was with him, when Britain was with him, when the world was with him."

The United States and other Western countries backed Saddam's regime throughout much of the 1980s as Iraq fought the new Islamic republic in Iran. "I stood against him," Allawi said. "I fought bravely against him. ... And this is not only me, but other political forces in Iraq. We earned [the right] to come back to Iraq to serve our people."●