Date:07/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/07/stories/2007050705761400.htm

International

Inter-Parliamentary Union stresses reconciliation in Iraq

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Demanding "the immediate withdrawal of all existing foreign forces from Iraq," the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has emphasised "the necessity to immediately promote national reconciliation" in that country.

The IPU, which met in Bali (Indonesia) for its 116th Assembly, took cognisance of the situation in Iraq as a component of an "emergency" resolution on anti-terror issues.

With a bloc of Western parliamentary groups dissociating itself from the resolution, the IPU suggested that "Muslim countries may contribute" troops towards the "deployment of peace-keeping forces under the auspices of the United Nations". It was also stipulated that such deployment could take place "wherever necessary" in Iraq after the pullout of foreign forces from there.

Consensus

The anti-terror resolution was piloted by the Indian Parliamentary Group (IPG) in association with host Indonesia, Algeria, and a few others. While the IPG initially called only for measures against the financing of terrorism, consensus soon emerged that the anti-terror initiative should cover Iraq.

Overruling Western objections that the focus on Iraq marked a substantive shift from the original intention behind the anti-terror move, IPU Assembly Chairman Agung Laksono ruled, at the plenary session on Friday, that the resolution was adopted through consensus.

Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal led the IPG, and parliamentarian Najma Heptulla represented it in the drafting committee.

For Indonesia, Iraq has emerged as a key foreign policy concern despite Jakarta's improving ties with the U.S.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for Sunni-Shia reconciliation , pullout of foreign forces, and deployment of U.N.-mandated peacekeepers, preferably from majority-Muslim countries.