BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Scores of Iraqi lawmakers stormed out of parliament on
Tuesday, blocking a vote on the 2008 budget and other bills including an amnesty
law that could free thousands of prisoners.
The walkout, mainly by Shi'ite and Sunni Arab lawmakers, underscored the deep
distrust between the country's different sectarian and ethnic groups.
"The crisis of confidence in parliament has grown," Bahaa al-Araji, a senior
lawmaker from the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told a news
conference.
"I think we should admit the failure of the (political process), dissolve
parliament and hold new elections."
In a rare moment of unity, Shi'ite and Sunni Arab MPs blamed the Kurdish bloc
for the deepening legislative crisis. Kurdish lawmakers, who account for about
20 percent of the parliament, blamed their Shi'ite and Sunni Arab colleagues.
Lawmakers have been haggling over the $48 billion budget for weeks. Debate has
been taking place at the same time on the amnesty law and a bill on provincial
powers that would define relations between Baghdad and local authorities.
In recent days, leaders of the political blocs agreed to vote on all three
measures as a package because of mutual suspicion that if one was voted on
separately and approved, the faction that wanted that most would renege on the
rest.
Sunni Arabs are backing the amnesty law because it could free thousands of
mainly Sunni Arab inmates detained during the insurgency against U.S. forces and
the Shi'ite-led government.
Some Shi'ite parties want the provincial powers law because it could devolve
more power to the regions, including Shi'ite southern Iraq, home to most of the
country's oil reserves.
The Kurds had wanted the budget passed giving them 17 percent of allocations,
which some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab MPs had said was too much based on current
population estimates.
A compromise was reached on Sunday whereby the allocation would remain 17
percent for this year but then be reviewed once a proper census had been carried
out.
INFIGHTING
The agreement had been to read each article of each law first and then vote on
all three as a package. Despite that disputes broke out over the order of
voting, several MPs said.
"The Kurds demanded the budget, the provinces law and the amnesty law be voted
on at once," said Khalaf al-Alayal, a Sunni Arab lawmaker.
"We rejected this as we didn't want to equate the release of prisoners with a
financial contract to please the Kurds."
Ula Talabani, a member of the Kurdish bloc, accused Sunni Arab and Shi'ite
Sadrist MPs of conspiring to block the agreement reached on sharing out the
national budget.
"There was a deal between them to vote on the amnesty law, and then withdraw
before reaching the budget law. After we learned this, we refused to vote on the
amnesty law," she said.
It was not clear how the impasse would be resolved, although parliament is set
to meet again this week.
Iraqi government officials have said the prolonged delay in approving the budget
was holding up vital spending at a time when the United States is urging the
government to jumpstart the economy to take advantage of falls in violence.
The U.S. government has long been pressing Iraq's leaders to make progress on
the legislative front.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, once highly critical of the slow progress
toward political reconciliation, said enroute to Baghdad on Sunday that Iraq's
leaders "seem to have become energised in the last few weeks".
Parliament passed a law last month that will allow former members of Saddam
Hussein's Baath party to regain their jobs in the government and military, a key
demand of minority Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam.
