[R-G] Brawl in Iraqi Parliament over SOFA

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Text of Agreement
<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20081119_SOFA_FINAL_AGREED_TEXT.pdf>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html>
November 20, 2008
Brawl Halts Session of Iraqi Parliament
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and SUADAD AL-SALHY

BAGHDAD — A session of Iraq's Parliament collapsed in chaos on
Wednesday, as a discussion among lawmakers about a three-year security
agreement with the Americans boiled over into shouting and physical
confrontation.

The session was dedicated to a second public reading of the agreement,
which governs the presence of American troops in Iraq through 2011 and
which the Parliament is scheduled to vote on Monday. Even before the
session began, legislators were apprehensive.

"There is much tension inside the Parliament," said Iman al-Asadi, a
Shiite lawmaker, shortly before the session was scheduled to start.
"We worry that they will fight each other inside the room."

Lawmakers who support the pact said they were worried in particular
about the followers of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr, who make up a bloc of 32 legislators in the 275-member
Parliament. While there are those in Parliament, like many Sunnis, who
have objections to elements of the pact, the Sadrists reject any
agreement with the Americans in principle.

In a departure from protocol, security guards were present in the
room, both because of the tension and because several Iraqi government
officials were in attendance to answer questions about the agreement.
Hoshyar Zebari, the foreign affairs minister, said the guards were
unarmed.

As soon as the session began, politicians in opposition to the pact
stood up in the hall and volubly argued that the ratification process
was unconstitutional because a law governing the passage of
international agreements had not been approved. Supporters say such a
law is unnecessary because Parliament has already ratified numerous
agreements without one.

For the next two hours, the Parliament speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani,
lashed out at the objectors and refused their demands to change the
Parliament agenda. He then invited Hassan al-Sneid, a Shiite lawmaker,
to begin the second public reading of the agreement, a matter of
parliamentary procedure.

As Mr. Sneid began reading, witnesses said, Sadrists and other
opponents of the agreement continued to trade shouts with lawmakers
who supported it. Then, Ahmed Masu'udi, a Sadrist lawmaker, approached
the dais. Mr. Masu'udi said later in an interview that he was simply
trying to reach Mr. Mashhadani to persuade him to stop the reading;
several other witnesses said Mr. Masu'udi tried to attack Mr. Sneid.
The security guards rushed toward Mr. Masu'udi, who said that they
grabbed him and struggled to push him away. At that point, witnesses
said, the hall was filled with shouting, lawmakers rushed toward the
front and the session ended in chaos.

Legislators poured out of the hall and into the cafeteria. There,
shouting and accusations continued among the lawmakers, quickly
attracting a company of security guards, who surrounded the cafeteria
and tried to keep away the journalists and other onlookers who had
gathered.

The shouting ended shortly afterward when many of the legislators
involved marched off to their offices. In the aftermath, members of
Parliament, many visibly irritated, cast blame: on the Sadrists for
causing the commotion, on the dominant Shiite parties for what they
see as an attempt to jam the passage through too quickly, and on the
Americans and the Iraqi government for what even some supporters of
the pact consider an inappropriately secretive negotiating process.

There is uncertainty as to what will happen Thursday, when Parliament
tries again for the second reading. Several blocs threatened to
boycott Parliament until an investigation took place, while other
lawmakers vowed that anyone who tried to disrupt the session would be
forcibly removed. There was also uncertainty as to whether the
agreement could be voted on before the middle of next week, when many
legislators may go on a pilgrimage.

While the confrontation in Parliament was unfolding, demonstrations in
favor of the pact were taking place around the country.

But the optimism among Shiite lawmakers earlier in the week had
considerably dampened.

In Washington, the Bush administration sent Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates to Capitol
Hill to brief lawmakers on the agreement. They did so behind closed
doors, and the administration has not released a copy of the
agreement, which has been published in Iraqi newspapers. Officials
have repeatedly declined to discuss its terms in detail.

The administration argues that the agreement with Iraq does not
require Congressional approval, but prominent lawmakers have raised
objections, particularly about the provisions giving the Iraqis legal
jurisdiction over crimes by American soldiers in some circumstances
and about Iraq's demands to authorize military operations.

It was not clear that Congress was in a position to force any changes.
The Pentagon's spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said that American commanders
were satisfied with the conditions set in the agreement, including
deadlines for withdrawal and constraints on operations.

"I'm not going to get into this — the specifics of this — other than
to say that how this agreement is implemented will be worked out
between our commanders on the ground and the Iraqi leadership," he
said. "And both seem to be very confident that it provides the
framework for them to continue to do all that still needs to be done."

Atheer Kakan and Mohammed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad,
and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.