Iraq set to offer amnesty

LONDON – Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said his government will soon offer an amnesty to those who have fought against the U.S.-led coalition, a British newspaper reported Monday.

“We are offering an amnesty definitely, for people who have not committed too many atrocious acts,” al-Yawer was quoted as telling The Financial Times. “Everybody except murderers, rapists and kidnappers.”

However, he also said that “if it’s just the people of this city (Baghdad), some of them killed 10 soldiers, we are offering an amnesty. We have to do that, we have to be brave enough to accept our people and embrace all Iraqis.”

Speaking to the Financial Times on Sunday, al-Yawer added that the amnesty would be offered within “a couple of days.”

The proposal was first mentioned earlier this month by a spokesman for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, signaling the new government’s desire to distance itself from the U.S.-led occupation.

Allawi spokesman Georges Sada went as far as to suggest that attacks on U.S. troops during the past year were legitimate acts of resistance “because it was an occupation force.”