Monday, November 06, 2006
Sunni party accuses U.S. of irresponsible arrests
Politics
An Iraqi parliamentary delegation has accused the US army in Iraq of breeding extremism by carrying out an "irresponsible arrest campaign". The delegation represents the Iraqi Accordance Front, which is the biggest Sunni Arab bloc in the Iraqi parliament, occupying 44 seats in the 275 seat parliament. Adnan al-Dulaimi, the chairman of the Front, said: "There are now around 17,000 Iraqi detainees in Buka camp in the south. Most of them are innocent people. They get arrested and thrown in jail for months and years without charges and without trial, and while in prison they are approached by al-Qaeda people.
The delegation held the US army in Iraq responsible for their failure in communicating with armed groups opposed to the US presence in Iraq. Dhafir al-Ani, a member of the delegation, said: "The US army is blindly following tip-offs from Shia sectarians who just want to harm Sunni for being Sunni, and the US army is just not getting this and keeps on filling its detention centres with innocent prisoners, most of them under 25 and [who] do not enjoy [a] solid political ideology, which makes them vulnerable and easily influenced by others, mainly al-Qaeda."Al-Dulaimi slammed US officials for not fulfilling their promises to him personally and to many members of his bloc.
