Iraqi PM unveils reconciliation plan [video report]

Maliki said foreign troops must respect human rights. Picture / Reuters.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister has presented a plan for national reconciliation to parliament, but Nuri al-Maliki was short on detail on how he aims to end what he called the "ugly picture" of life in Iraq.

The plan has been the subject of intense behind-the-scenes negotiation among the fractious sectarian and ethnic parties that make up the governing coalition and the result appeared to have been an absence of much that was controversial.

Listing the bloodshed and disorder that has made life almost unbearable for many, the Shi'ite Islamist confirmed in office a month ago, said: "We must put an end to this ugly picture."

Eleven people were reported killed in car bombings and shootings across Iraq on Sunday local time in the latest attacks.

After a 15-minute address, Maliki won approval from leaders of the Sunni minority that was dominant under Saddam Hussein but insisted he would not negotiate with Saddam's Baathist followers or al Qaeda Islamists who are the mainstay of the insurgency.

"No and a thousand times no," he said. "There can be no deal with them until they have been justly punished."

He offered an "olive branch" to all those prepared to take part in building a new Iraq but, contrary to some speculation, there was no bold public call for talks with Sunni insurgents.

He did, however, promise a review of "debaathification" laws that have barred Baathists from public office and the military.

Nor was there clear new language on dealing with the party militias, mostly backers of the Shi'ite and Kurdish groups in the government. Instead, the reconciliation plan followed much of the outline of Maliki's government platform issued in May.

"There will be an amnesty for those who did not take part in criminal and terrorist acts and war crimes," said Maliki, echoing calls for the US military to address Sunni grievances about the 13,000 mostly Sunni men held without charge.

Maliki also said the US-led foreign troops must respect human rights - a hot issue after revelations of a US military probe into the deaths of 24 civilians at Haditha in November.

Since then other cases have come to light and on Sunday the military said a soldier was charged with voluntary manslaughter (See full story).

Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi told parliament after Maliki spoke: "We call on all the people of Iraq to support this initiative because it will be the first step in achieving security and stability then start building the new Iraq."

Dulaimi spoke heatedly after the session about the urgent need to disband Shi'ite militias, which Sunnis accuse of running death squads within and alongside the police.

Maliki's government program includes disbanding militias.

But in a mark of the gulf between the parties, a leading parliamentarian who supports Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said this order did not apply to Sadr's Mehdi Army, one of the most controversial groups, as it did not meet the criteria.

Before it was presented, fellow Sunni Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the parliamentary speaker, cautioned the plan was not a "magic solution" but an attempt to "mend the cracks" in Iraqi society.

- REUTERS