Friday, May 11, 2007
Speaker adjourns session after heated argument over deteriorating security situation
Politics
(Voices of Iraq) - The Iraqi House Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani adjourned Thursday's session until this Saturday half an hour after its start following a heated argument between Iraqi parliamentarians over a report on a sit-in staged by Diala residents in the Shiite city of Karbala, protesting the deteriorating security situation in their province and a demand by a woman legislator who branded the government as "weak" to summon the Prime Minister to attend the parliament session for deteriorating security in Iraq.
According to a parliamentary committee assigned to write a report on the situation following a field visit to Karbala, residents of Diala held a sit-in in the street linking the shrines of the third Shiite Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas, calling on the government to improve the security situation in Diala.
The report submitted to the parliament revealed that during one year 11,200 people were killed, 9,500 families displaced, 8,250 women widowed, 16,500 children orphaned, 66 Shiite tombs destroyed, 350 groves set on fire and an equal number looted. The report blamed the U.S. forces for the deteriorating situation in Diala.
Legislator Shatha al-Mousawi, from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition, asked the House Speaker to summon Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki along with interior and defense ministers to attend a special parliamentary session on the deteriorating security situation in Diala province and elsewhere in Iraq. She said the government is "weak." Diala is located in central Iraq, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, whereas Karbala, the second Shiite city after Najaf, is 110 km southwest of Baghdad.
According to a parliamentary committee assigned to write a report on the situation following a field visit to Karbala, residents of Diala held a sit-in in the street linking the shrines of the third Shiite Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas, calling on the government to improve the security situation in Diala.
The report submitted to the parliament revealed that during one year 11,200 people were killed, 9,500 families displaced, 8,250 women widowed, 16,500 children orphaned, 66 Shiite tombs destroyed, 350 groves set on fire and an equal number looted. The report blamed the U.S. forces for the deteriorating situation in Diala.
Legislator Shatha al-Mousawi, from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition, asked the House Speaker to summon Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki along with interior and defense ministers to attend a special parliamentary session on the deteriorating security situation in Diala province and elsewhere in Iraq. She said the government is "weak." Diala is located in central Iraq, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, whereas Karbala, the second Shiite city after Najaf, is 110 km southwest of Baghdad.
Labels: Diala, Karbala, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, politics, security, Shatha al-Mousawi, UIA
