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Bloody day heralds birth of Iraq's new unity government
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
Published: 21 May 2006
Published: 21 May 2006
Iraq's new unity government was approved by parliament in Baghdad yesterday in what may be the last chance to hold Iraq together as a unitary state.
The new Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said his priority was to establish stability and security. But disagreements between the parties making up the new government meant that the ministers of defence and the interior - probably the two most important posts - have yet to be chosen.
Underlining how far security has declined since the parliament was elected five months ago, a series of attacks killed 27 people and wounded dozens more yesterday. Police also found the bodies of 21 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads in and around Baghdad.
During the long months that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish political parties negotiated the shape of a new administration, real control of Iraq has slipped further into the hands of Shia militias and Sunni insurgents. Ethnic and sectarian strife has been killing people at the rate of at least 40 a day.
"If the new government does establish security in Baghdad, they will be heroes," said Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
The new government has some strengths not possessed by its short-term predecessor. It has been chosen by a parliament elected for a full four-year term. It contains Sunni Arab members representing political parties who fought the election on 15 December; the Sunni had boycotted an earlier election in January last year. And Mr Maliki is said to be more flexible than his predecessor as Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article549523.ece
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Mr Maliki was speaking as the Iraqi cabinet met for the first time since it was approved by parliament on Saturday.
His comments came as the Iraqi capital was hit by a series of bomb attacks.
In the deadliest incident a suicide bomber killed 13 people and injured 18 in an attack on a crowded restaurant in Baghdad's central Karada district.
The attack on the restaurant near a police station took place at 1320 local time (0920 GMT), police said.
Police said they believed the bomber was wearing an explosives vest. The dead included several police officers.
In other Sunday's attacks in Baghdad:
* three people are killed and at least 17 are injured in a roadside bomb blast in a crowded market in the eastern New Baghdad district
* at least one person is killed and 15 are injured in a car bomb attack in the western Shula district
* five people are injured when a bomb - targeting a police patrol - goes off in the south-western Saydiya district. The bomb missed its intended target.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says that the violence highlights the challenge facing Iraq's new government.
Maliki's pledge
Mr Maliki vowed to crack down on the militias blamed for much of Iraq's violence.
"We will use maximum force against terrorism, but we also need a national initiative," Mr Maliki said.
"Weapons should only be allowed in the hands of the government. Militias, death squads, terrorism, killings and assassinations are not normal and we should put an end to the militias," he said.
But Mr Maliki also stressed the need for national reconciliation and other measures to restore normality.
The new Iraqi cabinet unites members of the major Shia, Kurd and Sunni parties, but three crucial ministries - national security, interior and defence - have still to be agreed.
Mr Maliki said he hoped ministers to head these departments would be agreed within the next two or three days.
He also outlined plans for a special force to protect Baghdad.
Responding to the new government's taking office, US President George W Bush said it marked a "a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom".
"I assured them that the United States will continue to assist the Iraqis in the formation of a free country," Mr Bush said after he had spoken by telephone with Iraq's leaders.
UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the formation of the new Iraqi government was an encouraging sign, adding that any decision to hand over some key responsibilities to Iraqi troops would be made on "a case-by-case basis".
"We are making some progress in both training and putting into place an Iraqi army, Iraqi police force who will gradually, increasingly take over some of these responsibilities," Ms Becket told the BBC.
"But I would envisage that even when responsibility is handed over to those Iraqi forces, they'll probably want some outside support for quite a while," she said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5002196.stm