Iraqi insurgents could get amnesty

By Jim Krane
The Associated Press

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In a sign of the new government's desire to distance itself from the 14-month U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, a spokesman for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi went as far as to suggest attacks on U.S. troops over the past year were legitimate acts of resistance.

"If he [a guerrilla] was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," the spokesman, Georges Sada, said yesterday. "We will give them freedom."

Choking the brutal insurgency is the No. 1 priority of Allawi's government, and the prime minister is expected to make a number of security-related policy announcements in the coming days. Besides the amnesty plan, those include the resurrection of Iraq's death penalty and an emergency law that sets curfews in Iraq's trouble spots, Sada said.

The amnesty plan is still in the works. A full pardon for insurgents who killed Americans is not a certainty, Sada said. Allawi's main goal is to "start everything from new" by giving a second chance to rebel fighters who hand in their weapons and throw their weight behind the new government.

"There is still heavy discussion about this," said Sada, adding that the U.S. Embassy has encouraged Allawi to try creative solutions to end the insurgency as long as they don't infringe on human rights.

Some type of amnesty is needed to coax Iraqi nationalist guerrillas to the government's side, while separating them from fighters using terrorist-style bombings, experts say.

"It's hard to imagine any way forward other than co-opting people who had previously fought against the United States, either as part of Saddam's army, part of the insurgency, or both," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Allawi needs to split the opposition into two groups: those he can co-opt and those he must confront."

Amnesties can be tricky. If the offer is too strict and few rebels accept, it will have little effect. But too lenient a deal could destabilize the government by bringing criminals and radicals into the government, said James Dobbins, a veteran diplomat who served as the Bush administration's special envoy for Afghanistan. "If Allawi and his government can't assume the nationalist mantle in the eyes of the Iraqi population, they can't prevail against the insurgency."

Dobbins said he believed Washington would not block Allawi's pardoning of Iraqi insurgents.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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