iraqi parliament meeting erupts in partisan brawl!
Posted by
x (aka dmuck)
Nov 19 '08, 10:16
|
A session of Iraq�s parliament collapsed in chaos on Wednesday, as a discussion among lawmakers about a three-year security agreement with the Americans boiled over into shouting and physical confrontation.
The session was dedicated to a second public reading of the agreement, which governs the presence of American troops in Iraq through 2011 and which the parliament is scheduled to vote on next Monday. Even before the session began, legislators were apprehensive.
�There is much tension inside the parliament,� said Iman al-Asadi, a Shiite lawmaker, shortly before the session was scheduled to start. �We worry that they will fight each other inside the room.�
Lawmakers who support the pact said they were worried in particular about the followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who make up a bloc of 32 legislators in the 275 member parliament. While there are those in parliament, like many Sunnis, who have objections to elements of the pact, the Sadrists reject any agreement with the Americans in principle.
In a departure from protocol, security guards were present in the room, both because of the tension and because several Iraqi government officials, including the ministers of foreign affairs and finance, were in attendance to answer questions about the agreement. Hoshyar Zebari, the foreign affairs minister, said the guards were unarmed.
As soon as the session began, politicians in opposition to the pact stood up in the hall and volubly argued that the ratification process was unconstitutional, because a law governing the passage of international agreements has not been passed. Supporters say such a law is unnecessary, because parliament had already passed numerous agreements without one.
For the next two hours, the parliament speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani, lashed out at the objectors and refused their demands to change the parliament agenda. He then invited Hassan al-Sneid, a Shiite lawmaker, to begin the second public reading of the agreement, a matter of parliamentary procedure.
As Mr. Sneid began reading, witnesses said, Sadrists and other opponents of the agreement continued to shout. Then, Ahmed Masu�udi, a Sadrist lawmaker, approached the dais. Mr. Masu�udi said later in an interview that he was simply trying to reach Mr. Mashhadani to persuade him to stop the reading; several other witnesses said Mr. Masu�udi attacked Mr. Sneid. The security guards rushed toward Mr. Masu�udi, who said that they grabbed him and struggled to push him away. At that point, witnesses said, the hall was filled with shouting, lawmakers rushed toward the front and the session ended in chaos.
Legislators poured out of the hall and into the cafeteria, an area of the parliament building that is cordoned off by low walls but is in full view of the spacious, patriotically decorated lobby. There, shouting and accusations continued among the lawmakers, echoing in the building and quickly attracting a company of camouflage-wearing security guards, who surrounded the cafeteria and tried to keep away the journalists and other onlookers who had gathered.
|
Responses:
|
