Iraq Parliament Making Progress

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From Christian Science Monitor: Iraq's parliamentarians passed three laws on Wednesday - including the highly significant 2008 budget. The move comes days after the visit of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and amid tremendous pressures on Iraqi politicians to pass key legislation to bolster security gains by contributing to stability, reconciliation among feuding factions, and economic growth. "The most important thing is that we passed the budget," says Jawad Ridha Taqi, a deputy from the main Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) of which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member. "Now the government can begin spending on much-needed projects."

Passing the budget and other legislation offers some reprieve to the struggling government of Prime Minister Maliki. It was a victory for Kurds, who have been pushing hard to get 17 percent of this year's $48 billion budget because of their "historic deprivation." But this quota applies only for this year; after that, the share of the national budget going to Kurdistan, a semiautonomous region, will have to be based on its population, as is the case now with other provinces, says Mr. Taqi. This will be tied to holding a national census, he adds. That is needed because the Kurds are adamant about putting the fate of the contested city of Kirkuk to a referendum by June.

Deputies also agreed before adjourning for a month-long recess on a law to regulate the powers of provincial and local governments. Taqi says this law does not meet the aspirations of his party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), which wants greater powers for the provinces and the creation of a Shiite region in the south similar to what Kurds have in the north. He says it was always possible that this law might be amended in the future. The bloc of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a rival of ISCI, scored a victory by having an article in the law stipulating that provincial elections be held before October 1st. Qusay Abdul-Wahab, a Sadrist deputy, says early elections are favorable to both Sadrists and the "awakening" movement of Sunni tribes in Anbar Province, who feel they are not properly represented. "This will redraw the political map and restore balance," he says.

The last piece of legislation was a limited amnesty for those in Iraqi prisons, who number about 24,000 according to the Ministry of Human Rights. The Sunni bloc of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi is demanding this, among 11 demands, in exchange for the return of Sunnis to Maliki's government, which they have boycotted since August. The law does not cover the nearly equal number of prisoners held at US-run facilities in Iraq.