In charge, Iraqis crack down hard
A new emergency security law comes on heels of major criminal sweeps in Baghdad, a curfew in Najaf, and local judges reinstating the death penalty.
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At the ornate Television and Radio complex - painted tiles of Sumerian scenes adorn its trash-strewn courtyard - in Baghdad, squatters complain they face increasingly heavyhanded police efforts to dislodge them. "They come here and fire weapons at night, they're really increasing the pressure,'' says Mohammed Abid Zain, an unemployed man who's lived here for a year.
His teenage wife, Lemia, nine months pregnant, sits quietly next to him in their room, while he explains they have few options. "They've offered us $100 to get out of here, but we need a place to live,'' he says. "Last week they cut off the water and electricity. But we're not going. They can tear this place down around us."
Across town at the former Iraqi Air Force Officers Club, Rania Jassim's four children scamper around her as she looks out from her home in a former changing room beside what was once the swimming pool. "We've heard they want us out, but unless they give me a place to live, we're in big trouble," she says. Ms. Jassim's husband, was a taxi driver killed in a carjacking shortly after Baghdad fell. She says she bought her home from earlier squatters for $200, who had put in a new wall for privacy. She says an American officer recently visited the complex and said that it was going to be converted into a US base. "We've been told that we'll get houses somewhere else, but I don't trust them," she says.
The announcement of the security law came after days of rewrites and delays because of US and some Iraqi concerns that human rights could be trampled on in the event an emergency was declared. There were also worries the appointed Allawi's powers would be so broad that he could suspend elections scheduled for January and effectively remain in power indefinitely. Emergency laws have been used by Arab strongmen to avoid elections.
Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bhaktiar Amin told reporters that he understood concerns about limitations on individual rights, but emphasized there are limits and protections in the new law that should prevent abuses. "The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger," he said.
Minister Hassan said: "We realize that this law might restrict some liberties but there are a number of guarantees in this law that ensure the rights of the people."
The six-page emergency law has provisions that, in theory, protect against the decades-long martial law in Arab countries like Syria and Egypt that have kept undemocratic regimes in power.
Any emergency would apply only to a specified geographic area and will be limited to 60 days. An emergency would have to be unanimously approved by Allawi and the three-member presidency, a group that represents Kurdish, religious Shiite, secular Shiite, and Sunni interests. The need for unanimous agreement should prove a break on Allawi's power. The Iraqi courts will also be allowed to review the order.
The security law prohibits Allawi from abrogating any part of the Transitional Administrative Law, the interim constitution that the US helped to write.
