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IRAQ WARS
Iraq vows to bring is own rights violators to justice
by Staff Writers
Geneva (AFP) March 25, 2015


Lawmakers come to blows in Iraqi Kurd parliament
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) March 25, 2015 - Lawmakers exchanged blows in the Iraqi Kurdish parliament during a debate Wednesday on extending the mandate of the autonomous region's president, Massud Barzani, an official said.

The tenure of Barzani, who has been Kurdistan's president for nearly a decade, has been a bone of contention for years in the region that touts itself as a democratic haven.

The tensions boiled over Wednesday after a lawmaker from the Goran (Change) movement described as "futile" attempts by Barzani's party to extend his stint in office.

"The argument occurred between the two deputies from (Barzani's) Kurdistan Democratic Party, on the one hand, and a deputy of the Movement for Change, on the other, which turned into a fistfight," said parliament spokesman Tariq Jawhar.

The brawl disrupted a planned session of parliament to debate an oil and gas bill that has now been postponed, Jawhar told AFP.

Barzani was first chosen as president of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005. His current mandate ends on August 19.

Out of 111 parliamentary seats, the Kurdistan Democratic Party holds 38 while Goran has 23. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, is the third strongest party.

Iraqi Kurdistan includes the three northern provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk.

Iraq pledged Wednesday to probe all rights abuses committed in the conflict-torn country, including by its own security forces and pro-government militias, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

"Any person involved in any violation will be brought to trial," Iraqi Human Rights Minister Mohammed Al-Bayati told the United Nations Human Rights Council.

He was responding to a UN report which provided a long list of atrocities committed by Islamic State jihadists but also contained accusations of abuses by Iraqi security forces and affiliated militia.

"The Iraqi government unreservedly condemns any human rights violation," Al-Bayati said.

The report, presented to the council Wednesday by UN deputy human rights chief Flavia Pansieri, presented horrifying details of killings, torture, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers by the IS extremists.

Many of the abuses may amount to "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes", while IS's systematic attacks on the Yazidi minority likely constitutes "genocide", the report said.

"The window is closing fast to pull Iraq back from the brink of chaos," Pansieri told the council.

She and a number of country representatives reiterated calls for Iraq to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to ensure the court can try the perpetrators of the staggering number of abuses.

Al-Bayati said Baghdad had taken note of calls to refer the case to the ICC.

"This is being studied, and once the study has been completed, Iraq will take the appropriate decision," he told the council.

The UN report listed IS crimes against men, women and children that were "painful even to contemplate", Pansieri said.

It also charged that pro-government forces had carried out extra-judicial killings torture, abductions and forcibly displaced large numbers of people, in what could amount to "war crimes".

Al-Bayati said the crimes allegedly carried out by pro-government forces were "isolated individual actions", which "in no case can be compared to the systematic and transboundary terrorism" of IS.

US representative Peter Mulrean agreed.

"There should be no suggestion of equivalence between ISIL's atrocities and violations committed by the fight against ISIL, but all are deplorable," he told the council, using an alternate acronym for the jihadist group.


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