Iraqi Deputies Demand Minister Be Questioned Over Bombings

BAGHDAD -- A leading Iraqi parliamentarian said legislators are demanding that the parliament's presidium question Interior Minister Jawad Bolani over security lapses following the recent bombing attacks in Baghdad that claimed hundreds of victims, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI)
reports.

Falah Hasan Shanshal, the chairman of the parliament's Accountability and Justice Committee, told RFI on November 3 that 58 deputies have signed a petition asking the presidium to summon Bolani "for failing to purge his ministry of infiltrators and spoilers."

Shanshal said his committee has identified "2,313 Interior Ministry personnel who were members of various security agencies and paramilitary outfits under the Saddam Hussein regime."

He said the minister would hopefully be summoned next week at the latest.

Another committee member, Rashid al-Azzawi, told RFI that not only the Interior Ministry but all ministries and the government are guilty of not implementing the accountability law, which excludes unrepentant ex-Ba'athists from public office.

He added that the law has yet to be implemented even 21 months after its passage.

Al-Azzawi also pointed out that many people who served in the former regime's security agencies have contributed to rebuilding the country's
intelligence and policing since 2003.

He suggested that they should be appreciated rather than purged.