Jeering Shiites reject Iraq Baathist bill

by Ammar Karim Sun Nov 25, 9:30 AM ET
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A long-awaited bill to allow members of Saddam Hussein's Sunni Baath party to return to public life in Iraq was tabled in parliament on Sunday but immediately rejected by jeering hardline Shiites.
Washington regards the bill as vital to stuttering reconciliation efforts in Iraq and it has made its adoption one of 18 benchmarks by which the progress of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government can be measured.
The first reading of the Justice and Accountability Law, which has been stalled in the deeply-divided parliament for months, was greeted with heckles by lawmakers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc.
"No! No, to Baathists," the Sadrists shouted, noisily banging their desks and prompting parliamentary speaker Mahmud Mashhadani to order the session to continue behind closed doors.
"The draft violates the Iraqi constitution," Falah Hasan Shanshal, a Sadr group lawmaker, told the parliament, according to a statement issued by the assembly.
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