[R-G] Iraqi Cabinet Approves Draft Oil Legislation

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 The Washington Post
All Rights Reserved
http://www.washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post

July 4, 2007 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition

SECTION: FOREIGN; Pg. A11

DISTRIBUTION: Maryland

LENGTH: 1008 words

HEADLINE: Iraqi Cabinet Approves Draft Oil Legislation;
Move Is 2nd Attempt to Establish Law; Maliki Acknowledges  
Shortcomings by Government

BYLINE: Joshua Partlow; Washington Post Foreign Service

DATELINE: BAGHDAD, July 3

BODY:


Iraq's cabinet has again approved draft legislation establishing a  
framework to manage the country's vast oil resources, Prime Minister  
Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday, but has not yet acted on a potentially  
more contentious companion law that would govern the distribution of  
oil revenue.

At a televised news conference, Maliki also expressed disappointment  
that a "national unity government" has not been achieved as he had  
hoped. He said recent boycotts by some Sunni and Shiite members of  
parliament and cabinet ministers were "causing harm to the citizens  
and creating depression and disappointment."

In February, Iraqi officials heralded the cabinet's approval of a  
draft oil law and said it was headed to parliament for review, but  
disagreement halted its progress.

Kurdish officials in particular have been concerned about what power  
their semiautonomous region in northern Iraq would have to  
independently negotiate oil contracts.

Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish regional government's minister of natural  
resources, said he was unsure what was agreed to on Tuesday. The text  
approved in February is the only acceptable draft for the Kurds, he  
said.

U.S. officials have insisted in recent months that progress be made  
on the oil and revenue-distribution measures in order to promote  
national reconciliation.

Maliki said the cabinet voted to approve legislation that outlines  
the responsibilities of a federal oil and gas council that would have  
the power to review contracts with oil companies. But 13 of the 37  
cabinet ministers were absent; six Sunni ministers are boycotting the  
cabinet, as are several Shiite ministers loyal to cleric Moqtada al- 
Sadr.

Lawmakers said they expected stiff opposition to the draft  
legislation in parliament, in particular from Sunni legislators,  
whose territory in central Iraq does not have the proven oil reserves  
of the predominantly Shiite south or Kurdish north.

"We greatly object to this law and I did not attend the cabinet  
meeting today," said Ali Baban, the minister of planning and a member  
of the Sunni bloc in the government. Baban said the power of the  
central government to reject contracts was unclear and not adequately  
outlined in the legislation.

But Firyad Rwandzi, a Kurdish member of the National Assembly,  
sounded more optimistic. "Everything is moving forward and there is  
no problem" between the Kurdish regional government and the federal  
government, he said.

In his remarks, Maliki said he plans to "restructure the entire  
government" by merging some ministries and slimming the bureaucracy.  
In coming weeks, he said, he will attempt to appoint new ministers to  
fill vacancies. He called on politicians to stop boycotting the  
government, a move he said was an "embarrassment" for his  
administration.

Maliki spoke frankly about how the government has not lived up to the  
promise of cooperation among rival sectarian groups. "It is no shame  
for us to say that what we were hoping for was not achieved," he  
said. "But this does not mean that the government will hesitate from  
heading toward partnerships with all the components of the Iraqi  
society."

Meanwhile Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, killing 19  
people and wounding 41, police said. The blast occurred in the  
afternoon near a market in the predominantly Shiite Shaab neighborhood.

In Anbar province in western Iraq, U.S. forces killed at least 23  
suspected insurgents in fierce fighting south of the provincial  
capital, Ramadi, over the weekend, the military said.

Attack helicopters that flew in to support ground troops fired on  
suspected insurgents late Saturday, killing one and wounding two, and  
destroying two trucks, the military said in a statement. The fighting  
continued overnight and by 5 a.m. Sunday, a survey of the area found  
"22 dead insurgents, including seven who were wearing suicide vests,  
as well as 24 homemade grenades" and other weapons and explosives,  
the military said.

Police in Anbar said the fighters killed included Saudis and Syrians  
who had arrived in Ramadi from southern Iraq last week.

In a separate development, Human Rights Watch reported that detainees  
in Kurdish prisons in northern Iraq frequently suffered abuses and  
torture by their captors and were denied due process of law. The 58- 
page report, based on research done last year and interviews with  
more than 150 detainees, called for changes in the Kurdish detention  
system and investigations into the alleged abuses.

"Detainees reported a wide range of abuse, including beatings using  
implements such as cables, hosepipes, wooden sticks, and metal rods,"  
the report said. Security forces put some prisoners in "stress  
positions for prolonged periods, and kept them blindfolded and  
handcuffed continuously for several days at a stretch."

"We are surprised that the Kurds are practicing such violations after  
they were victims of torture" during the rule of Saddam Hussein,  
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said  
at a news conference in Irbil, the Reuters news agency reported.

Jassir Abdul-Razaq, an official in Human Rights Watch's Middle East  
department, said most of the detainees were Kurds, "detained for  
terrorist, political or religious extremism causes."

Kurdish officials denied torture was taking place when Human Rights  
Watch presented them its findings, but they promised to form an  
independent investigative committee to review the allegations,  
Whitson told Reuters.

Also Tuesday, Reuters reported that more than 1,000 private  
contractors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition,  
13,000 contractors have been wounded in the two wars, according to  
the news agency, citing U.S. Labor Department statistics obtained  
under a Freedom of Information Act request.

U.S. contractors in Iraq have assumed a growing list of  
responsibilities, including gathering battlefield intelligence, and  
have come under increasing attack during their missions providing  
security.

Special correspondents Naseer Nouri and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and  
other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.

GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Pool Photo By Khalid Mohammed; Prime Minister Nouri  
al-Maliki, center, presides over a meeting of Iraq's cabinet, which  
had approved an oil bill in February that was stalled by opposition  
in the National Assembly.