PRESS CONFERENCE: Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly, Dr. Bassima al-Saadi, March 3, 2008
Multi-National Force-Iraq
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly, Implementation and Follow-up Committee for National Reconciliation Civilian Spokesman
Dr. Bassima al-Saadi, Implementation and Follow-up Committee for National Reconciliation Representative
DATE: March 3, 2008
TRANSCRIBED BY: SOS INTERNATIONAL LTD.
PARTICIPANTS:
Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly
Dr. Bassima al-Saadi
REPORTERS:
Larry Kaplow from Newsweek Magazine
Jabai[ph] Salman[ph] from Newspaper Information
Unidentified reporters from Assalam[ph] TV, Darsadam[ph] Agency, the New York Times, London Times, al-Huriya Radio, and Al-Fayhaa TV
REPORTERS 1-14
*REP1 = REPORTER 1
*INT = INTERPRETER
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: As-Salāmu `Alaykum everyone. My name is Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly. I am the civilian spokesman for the Implementation and Follow-up Committee for the National Reconciliation. And we have Dr. Bassima al-Saadi. Dr. Bassima al-Saadi because most of the media said they mistake the name. It’s al-…she’s also from the committee from the national reconciliation. I expect that the project of the national reconciliation that was initiated by the prime minister ever since he assumed responsibility. One of the major projects and one of the most important projects in the policy of the current government. This program guarantees through its mechanism the national participation from all parts or all Iraqis and also serves justice…provides justice for everyone.
Many of those sides wanted to distort the image of the national reconciliation. And also due to some resolutions, they tried to make those or some categories in the Iraqis as people who the government didn’t pay attention to. But the national reconciliation provides justice for all the categories or all the Iraqis and also guarantees that all sides and all parties take part in the political process. And also guarantees no marginalization to any entity in building the new Iraq. Many of the things have been accomplished during the national reconciliation program in the past few months. And the Iraqi citizen and the international community should be informed on the things that have been accomplished during that period. There are some entities.
There is the former Iraqi Army that has been disbanded. And the people who serve in that Army we need to know what happened to them. There is also the industrial companies and all those who work for the military-industrial companies…or we need to know what happened to those people and we need to tell the people what we have done to those people who used to work there. And now, today, we have Dr. Bassima al-Saadi who worked really hard for the past time period in the National Reconciliation Committee to implement those mechanisms that have to do with the fate of those who were in the former Iraqi Army and how the committee also worked on enhancing the national reconciliation through giving chance to all the parts to take part in the government through….
As an example for that, the Awakenings that are now helping the Iraqi security forces. I am very pleased today to be with you. And she will talk briefly on two major topics and after that we will take the questions. And she will talk as well the members of the former Iraqi Army. And also we will talk about the disbanded people from the industrial…military-industrial companies or institutes. Then we will take the questions.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: I’d like to thank Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly and all the media here today. I’d like to clarify one thing. The national reconciliation and the initiative made by the prime minister ever since he assumed responsibility was activated through the Committee of the National Reconciliation. But the real implementation was through the formation of the committee. And through an order by the prime minister this committee started doing its job. The national reconciliation, as we know, and Iraq, as you know, we have so many burdens from the former regime like the disbanded Army that was taken through…or was done by orders from the civilian…or Mr. Bremer at that time.
And also the Institute of Military-Industrial Intelligence and the Presidency Divan. As for the disbanded entities, we made a list and we distributed them to the banks. And there is also an email in the list. We received several lists of all those who want to go back or return to the Army or to serve in any civilian job. Fifty-five thousand people wanted to retire or resign. And we’re working on…with their resignation. As for the security forces, we also submitted lists for those who want to go back to serve the government or serve any kind of other job.
But the justice and accountability law in item 6 it says until it’s being really implemented…ever since or since…once it’s being applied, they will receive their resignation and their retirement pensions. And this will be done through a coordination through them and the Directorate of the Retirement so that they receive their pensions. This is according to the justice and accountability law. In addition to that…the Army and the security forces, the industrial institutes. We have over 48,000 or there are several companies that have been integrated through the private sector.
And some of the companies were accused of making or manufacturing some weapons. But until now, we have 48,000 companies that receive also pensions or emergency payments that still do not meet the need. We have several solutions for the industrial institutes that the ministries receive a staff of the industrial institutes. And we know that there are some employments and there are some needs and vacancies in the ministries and the needs in the ministries. The prime minister ordered in the Ministry of Finance so that they could integrate the staff of the industrial staff within those ministries.
Now we are working with the multinational forces and we’re still at the beginning of the work. And we’re still making some sessions and talks that those companies of the industrial institutes with all its skills and qualifications so that they cooperate with some international companies to work on…go on working on the same thing that they used to do. And hopefully the problem of the industrial institutes will be resolved in the coming few weeks. As for the national reconciliation as well, we went to the tribal leaders—and this was done by the initiative by the prime minister—to invite them to join the government and also to relinquish all violence and sectarianism.
And the tribal leaders also responded in a good way or…and responded in an excellent way in rejecting violence. And also they joined the government through the support committees. We have over 44 support committees that have been formed in the [unintelligible] provinces but now they are not because they have been stabilized. We have in Salah ad Din, in DiyalaProvince, and in Anbar Province as well. In Ninawa, Kirkuk, and as you see Prime Minister Maliki said, the final fight against terrorism is in Ninawa Province.
Also we are trying to integrate the Awakenings and to join them so that through the support committees and also we integrated them to the security forces. Until now, the committee hired 12,000 people from the Awakening in the local police in their areas because the national reconciliation or the remaining of the Awakening people and to…because…and everyone know that to control those or the rest of the people that Prime Minister Maliki said to give them some civilian jobs, everyone according to his own specialty.
And they will be distributed on all the province…on all the ministries according to their own specialties. And this includes all those who were part of the Awakening or who never had a job but they will be taken care of and they will be given some training courses. After that they will be joined to the ministries or the institutes to receive their jobs.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Now we will take the questions.
REP1: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: Question from Assalam[ph] TV. Question to Dr. Tasheen al-Sheikhly. As you are the…usually the civilian spokesman for Operation Fardh Al-Qanoon and one of the major things that the operation is successful is the national reconciliation itself. And they bring back the displaced families. And before I begin asking the question, I would like to just say one thing. A few days ago I went to the Argaguf area.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Yes. And I’ve seen you there.
REP1: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: There were or there have been 300 families went back to those places after the Muthana Brigade said that it’s 100% clear. But we found out there is a huge damage in the area. There are so many people or so many houses that are damaged. There’s no water. There’s no electricity in that place. What’s the role of the government? Because a few days ago I asked some of the people, “Why don’t you go back to your home?” And he said, “It’s secure but there are no services and my house was destroyed. So where am I supposed to go and live?” So when do you think you will pay attention and take care of those people who lost their homes?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The policy of the government, whether in the national reconciliation or in Operation Fardh Al-Qanoon, is the same. And I’m honored to be the spokesman for both sides because they all integrate each other and they are not separate. This is one point. As for the displaced people, you know and everybody knows that we’re trying to pave the way to bring back all the displaced families.
But the major problem is that the hot zones or those places that were hot zones in the past, they still need some really exceptional essential services. And the violence in those places caused huge damage to the Iraqi citizen. And the Iraqi citizen…the Iraqi government knows that. And through Operation Fardh Al-Qanoon, all those things are being submitted to the prime minister.
We give some funds to the people. And there is a committee in all the places that evaluate the damages on each and every hou…home. And then we are happy that the case of the displacement has been resolved because the security problems is now or the security has been improved because now the reasons of the displacement are now gone. I was in al-Jihad neighborhood and 400…and I witnessed that 490 families went back home to their places and in al-Amil neighborhood we had 100 families who went back.
In al-Doura—and before coming here we were from the support committee in Doura and we heard that there is a good number of families who…of the displaced families who went back. And I ask you to come with me on Thursday so that we can go to southern Baghdad so that we can visit areas of Doura, Arab Jabour, Hor Rijab. And I invite all the media so that they can come with me and we can show them what happened or what’s happening there now.
But of course you know that the infrastructure has been destroyed. And in order to provide services, you can’t provide services with a destroyed infrastructure. We work on providing the infrastructure that provides the services. And at the same time we also…we want to provide the services. So that’s what the government is thinking of and hopefully we will be successful.
REP2: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: Question to Dr. Bassima. We’ve heard…. Question from Darsadam[ph] Agency. Question to Dr. Bassima. We’ve heard a lot about the national reconciliation ever since the government but we still haven’t seen any real implementation of the reconciliation among the political blocks due to marginalization that it’s being taken. What is your response for this?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The Committee of the National Reconciliation—and as Dr. Tasheen knows and all the people in the support of the Awakening—is not influenced by the politics or the politicians and refuse to talk about policy or politics. All those in the Awakening or anyone with us is not influenced by the politicians because all those people rejected violence and rejected the sectarian violence and they all worked together with us. And so those political blocks and the disputes among them is just a political thing. We don’t have…we have nothing to do with it.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: This committee has to do with implementing the real mechanisms of national reconciliation. We have two disputes. First, we need reconciliation on the social and the political level. We need to build a new Iraq which is away from sectarianism. Which is…we need to give space to everyone to participate in the Iraqi or the new government or in this new political or…. Yes.
DR TASHEEN: Yes, please.
REP3: As-Salāmu `Alaykum. Question for Dr. Bassima from the New York Times.
DR TASHEEN: [unintelligible]
REP3: Thanks. [laughs]
DR TASHEEN: I just fix it.
[laughter]
REP3: You talked about the accountability and justice law and how that will treat the members of the former regime. I’m curious; have you an estimate of how many members of the former regime who are now in the security forces were in those other ministries that are addressed in the accountability and justice law? How many of those former regime members are going to have to retire and take pensions once…as the accountability and justice law is implemented? Thank you.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: As for those who work for the Iraqi government in the security, the number is 2,000 to 2,100…it’s around 2,000-2,300. As for those who have been retired, we have 55…it’s 55,000 members or employees from the former regime have been issued…their cases have been issued to the Retirement Directorate because, as you know, there is a resolution by the Office of the Prime Minister in 2007 and it categorized the lieutenant colonel and above to be retired.
And anyone who is a major and…should return to the security services. We’ve opened all the recruiting centers so that we could receive the former officers in the former Iraqi Army. So far we have over 32,000 officers that went back to the new Iraqi Army. They were from the former Iraqi Army.
We have…the total of the former Iraqi officers were 64,000. As for the intelligence service, most of them now used to work at the former intelligence service but after the accountability and justice law, some of them should be retired. And we are working on this now but we still need the…because the law gave us 60 days until they receive pensions or receive orders to be retired.
DR BASSIMA: Continues speaking in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
REP4: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: Question to Dr. Bassima. What’s the number of…who have been included by the accountability and justice law who wanted to go back and work for the government—from the officers in particular? And the second question. There were some accusations from the western media against you that you were behind the unemployment or you opposed hiring some of the officers. And this is…and how do you respond to this?
DR BASSIMA:Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Well thank you for this question. As for the number of the officers, I’m talking only about the entities that had been disbanded. We have 19,000 who will be retired. And we have 13,000 from the intelligence. From the general security: 19,000. Thirteen-thousand from the security…private security.
The…as for the former defense minister, it has to do…I have nothing to do with it because the minister has to work on this within 60 days. As for the accusations, because you’ve said accusations, and I know that these accusations are not true, and because the ministers and there are so many ministers and they have their authorities. And I don’t think I have any authority to hire or refuse to hire any kind of officer.
[laughter]
DR TASHEEN:Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
REP5: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Question from the London Times. What is the system that you will adopt to prevent the joining of the former officers that are still insurgents?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: What kind of insurgency are you talking about?
REP5: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: There are some officers who are insurgents and they are still insurgents but they want to join the Iraqi Army. What’s the policy?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: What kind of insurgency do you mean?
REP5: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: rebellion that is joining the…those who fight the government.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The national reconciliation is to join all those who…all the armed men so that we can bring them back to unity in the government. The general amnesty law says all those who have been…or will include all those who have been accused so that we can bring them back to the government.
We joined some of the Awakenings in the Ministry of Interior and we also…and most of the Awakenings are now working in their areas and there are officers from the former Iraqi Army but they still now work in the Ministry of Interior.
REP6: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Question from al-Huriya Radio. Question to Dr. Bassima. You said the ranks from the lieutenant colonel and above should be retired. There are so many who have expertise and don’t you think it’s not fair to send all those people and file them to…?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: This has been…this is a resolution by the prime minister and the Office of the Prime Minister…the Council of Ministers. But the…those who have certificates, like in engineering or anything else, should be brought back for the Iraqi Army. But if he doesn’t want that he can go back and serve the government in a civilian job. \
But now we have several technical specialties and majors inside the Iraqi Army. So now if he wants to go back, he can because you know the…now the Iraqi Army is not like the old one. The system is different. The policy is different. We are now opening the recruiting centers to bring back all those who served in the former Iraqi Army.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
[laughter]
REP7: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: What’s the number of the officers from the former Iraqi Army who have been brought back to the new?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Well I mentioned that we have 32,000 officers who went back. Thirty-two thousand.
REP7: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: And what’s the number that you expect?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Well there are new categories in the Ministry of Defense and new units so that we can join the…or integrate the Awakenings in the Ministry of Defense and Interior. And we can also integrate the others in the other ministries. Well the number is infinite. All those who want to join the security services can join the Ministry of Defense and Interior.
But if they don’t want to, they could be retired. But there is also initiative by the prime minister; those emergency payments were not enough for the former Iraqi Army, especially from those who are lieutenant colonel and above. That’s why the retirement for them was not really good especially in the provinces that witnessed violence.
So the prime minister wanted to make the emergency payment for those officers—that is from the lieutenant colonel and above—he takes it as a payment that is much higher than before. So if he’s a lieutenant colonel, he takes the same salary of a retired, let’s say, lieutenant general in the new Iraqi Army. We have now 41,000 officers that received retirement.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The National Reconciliation will not exclude any Iraqi. Either he will go back to serve with the government or he will retire. Now those emergency payments are just temporary things to help the officers. But everyone will in the future know what will happen to him. Either he will join the government or he will retire.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: But for the time being he’s taking his salaries as a fund. But he will be given a salary as a retirement person.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: We had…we also increased the staff in the retirement directorate so that we could…or they could work on further officers and further cases of the retired officers from the former Iraqi Army.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: As for the…those who work for the industrial institutes, that has to do with the age of the person and we need to…we don’t want them to…we want to make use of those who used to work in the industrial institutes.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: And there is a proposal now to make use of the institutes that we have now that could integrate and work with international companies. So we can…this could be done through an agreement between the government and those companies…or the international companies and this could also serve in eliminating the unemployment. Also this…
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
REP8: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: There are some sources saying that the Awakening is infiltrated by the…by terrorist members. Are there any mechanisms to clear the Awakening?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The numbers that come to the Committee of the National Reconciliation and we know that all those who had committed or had perpetrated any kind of crime shouldn’t be included. We always check the name. And through the help of the Ministry of Interior and the intelligence, we check the background and we give a security background check for all those who work for the Awakening and who want to join the Iraqi security forces.
DR BASSIMA: Continues speaking Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: And the number is now 18,000. Those who wanted to apply are 18,000. But only 6,000 were able to apply and work for the security services or even because of their or due to the security background check.
REP9: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: So many people have been…or those who perpetrated so many crimes are now outside the country. So why do you make the national reconciliation press conferences in…outside the country?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: You are talking about the reconciliation on the political level but we’re talking on the national reconciliation on the national level itself.
[overlapping untranslated dialog and laughter]
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: We didn’t make any conference outside Iraq.
REP9: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: There was one in Amman and Cairo.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: We’re implementing the program of the government of Iraq for the national reconciliation on the national level as to join and integrate all the Iraqis into the government itself so they could participate and also to fill the gaps due to what happened after toppling the regime or the former regime.
We are now implementing the…or as for the national reconciliation on the…among the politicians has to do with the politicians themselves. We’re talking about the executive procedures that we’re doing on the national reconciliation.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: You’re talking about…I think you are talking about the national reconciliation among the Parliament members and the political blocks and we don’t have anything to do with them.
REP10: Asks question in Arabic.
INT: In fighting the insurgents, what’s the importance of recruiting the former officers in the Iraqi security forces? What’s the….?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic
INT: Each and every Iraqi who wants to serve his country will stand against everyone who wants to hurt Iraq. Any kind of…or any Iraqi who is qualified, militarily or not, because now through the Awakenings and the support councils, all of them are working hard to fight terrorism. We opened the door so that we can integrate all those who want to join the government according to some standards.
Anyone who is a major and below could come back to the government and serve the government according to the standards of the government itself. So the thing is it’s the idea that Iraqis will join and will fight terrorism together.
REP11: Thank you. Larry Kaplow with Newsweek Magazine. For Dr. Al-Bassima. Have you seen a difference between the kind of people who were coming from the Safwa movements early, maybe many months ago, and the people you are seeing now come in as it has gotten much bigger? There are close to 100,000. There have been some problems recently among themselves.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The situation now through the meetings that or the sessions that we make with the Awakenings and the support committees. And they are all Iraqis of course. Now the situation is really promising and after the Awakening so that the Iraqi government is serious and the national reconciliation in integrating them among the…through the security forces.
The number has increased and the support committees increased as well. The Awakening members increase as well. They prefer to meet the Iraqi government. They…at the beginning they used to meet us through the multinational forces but now they want to meet us directly.
DR TASHEEN:Yes, please.
REP3: I just wanted to double-check…well, first I wanted to double-check that it’s correct that under the accountability and justice law it’s anyone who is a lieutenant colonel. I think I understand what you are saying which is anyone who is a lieutenant colonel above in the old Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense under Saddam, those are the people who will not…who will have to take retirement and will not be able to stay?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: This is not the…this was in a resolution by the Council of Ministers on 2007. This is for the Army itself. Accountability and justice was concerned with certain ranks. The Council of Ministers…and the resolution by the Council of Ministers did not talk about the ranks because anyone who is a major and below can go back to the government.
REP3: Just one quick follow up. I think you talked about…the question I had asked previously about the number of people from Saddam’s security forces who were in the government now who will have to leave because of the accountability and justice law, was it—I think you said it was between 2,000 and 2,300 of one category. And then later you mentioned…it was a number…to a different question, a number of 19,000. I just want to make sure I have my numbers straight. Is it 2,000 to 2,300 or…?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: The general security that has been disbanded included 19,000. The intelligence: 13,000. The general security: 5,000. The private security. All those…the Presidency Divan I have no information about it but I could go back and check the numbers as well.
That includes 17 categories…or included 17 categories in the former regime so that we could activate those who used to work in the Presidency Divan at that time. So that we can resolve their cases either through retirement or bringing them back to the government.
DR TASHEEN: I want to declare something. We have three types of bodies…security bodies. One is the security and intelligence and special security forces. That’s what Dr. Bassima talks about. Continues speaking in Arabic. [translation not provided]
REP12: Jabai[ph] Salman[ph] from Newspaper Information. Aren’t you afraid of eventually winding up with a hugely inflated security apparatus with a surplus of people?
INT: I’m sorry. Could you go back and ask the question again?
DR TASHEEN: May you repeat again, please? It was not clear. May you repeat the question, please?
REP12: Aren’t you afraid of, eventually, at some point you will end up with a hugely inflated security apparatus with way too much people?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: What’s the concern from the surplus? You are asking about there is a concern from the surplus?
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic. [translation not provided]
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: This has to do with the ministries. This has to do with the ministries and the standards and the regulations. It has to do with the ministries through the brigades and the command and the divisions that have…they have in the provinces so they…I think the ministries deal with this.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Building the new institutes in Iraq for the new Iraq is different from building the institutes in the former regime. In the former regime, we had several intelligence services like the special services…special intelligence and there were so many institutes. Now we have a fixed number of institutes.
And the nature of what they have is fixed. However, it doesn’t mean that all the Iraqis will be within the Ministry of Interior and Defense. Some of those are due to the security situation now. This will motivate people to go to police and Army. But with the security improvement and with the activation of the other economic and industrial institutes, there will be some employments in other aspects that are different and will also allow people and give them more options to head to other sectors.
REP13: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Question from Al-Fayhaa TV. We’ve heard that some of the Awakenings or some of the members of the Awakenings, do they have any kind of rights? And what about the Awakenings in Diyala Province? You know because they disbanded themselves and they were a different kind of point of views. So could you clarify this?
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Prime Minister Maliki said that the Awakening members and the martyrs will be treated as if they were the members in the interior or in the defense. And Prime Minister Maliki ordered the commanding divisions to reward all the Awakening members for their heroic situations and their stances they have done according to their…according, of course, to what they’ve done.
But I don’t know the exact number. But there is an award by the Prime Minister Maliki to the Awakening members. As for the Awakenings in Diyala and why they have disbanded themselves, this is not true. Recently now they are working with the government and they have been integrated with the government and through the Committee of the National Reconciliation because there is a mechanism to work or integrate the Awakening with the joint patrols from the Army and police because they are not working alone because working alone is not acceptable.
And they have their own uniform and they are…even their weapons are being given in the centers. And even their missions are being given by the commanders in the military and police. And those are the regulations for the work of the Awakenings. Yes, at the beginning they opposed working and there were some problems.
But after some dialog between them and the operation command in Diyala, and also a representative from the Council of Ministers, we managed to resolve this and the Awakening are now working with the Iraqi security forces there.
DR TASHEEN:Speaks in Arabic.
[laughter]
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: We hope that this will be the last question.
REP14: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Are you concerned that there will be problems from…in the lack of contra…or confidence? Because some of the former officers at that time or recently, they used to implant IEDs.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: Terrorism used some of their people or some of our people as tools to ignite sectarian violence. And they want…and terrorism wanted to isolate those people from the government. So what are we going to do to those people?
The government now is opening the door to those people to go back and serve the country. And this is the kind of reconciliation that we are talking about. This is the kind of reconciliation that is based on forgiveness and mercy so that we can say that he is an Iraqi and if he did a mis…or if he made a mistake, we could forgive him. But of course we could prosecute them. But I’m sure that the…even Iraqis if they made mistake, we could reform them. So I think the government forgives those people.
DR BASSIMA: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: I’d like to add also one point. According to my work, I’ve seen that the Iraqis or the Iraqi citizen…the patriotic Iraqi citizen witness…or the national reconciliation witness something that hasn’t been done in all the countries.
And the Iraqi citizen managed to go through all those terrorism and work with the government through the national reconciliation. And we managed to eliminate the sectarian violence and we managed to gather all the people from Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians.
And our work is successful with them. And as you can see now, to go back or to go out and see in the streets, you can witness that national reconciliation is a success. That’s why I thank all the Iraqis who participated in succeeding the operation of Fardh Al-Qanoon and the national reconciliation.
DR TASHEEN: Speaks in Arabic.
INT: I’d like to thank you today for coming. And hopefully we will meet again in the future. Thank you for Dr. Bassima for coming today.
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