Iraqi emergency powers 'soon'
2004-07-03 12:33
Baghdad - Emergency powers to deal with trouble-spots in Iraq are being prepared and will be announced "very shortly", the caretaker government's vice president for national security has said.
"The national salvation law will be announced very shortly," Barham Saleh said in an interview with Al-Iraqiya television broadcast on Friday night.
"This law will give the government the capability of imposing emergency laws in specific areas and for set periods to deal with terrorist threats," he said.
"The law was examined two or three days ago by the cabinet, discussed with the presidential office and will be announced very soon," he added, without giving a date.
President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar said in an interview published on Wednesday that the "national salvation" law would be "less repressive than emergency laws but with severe penalties for people carrying out terrorist acts".
After the handover of power on Monday, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said strong measures would be imposed to control the Iraqi insurgency, stressing that security was his top priority.
Saleh, a Kurd, said the Iraqi public should also play a part in quelling the violence.
"Terrorists and their agents are determined to fight to the last Iraqi," he said, calling on "the government and the people to face them together with civil society groups, religious institutions and the security services".
- AFP