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Iraqi amnesty Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021021/ap_wo_en_po/iraq_34http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021021/ap_wo_en_po/iraq_34
AP World Politics
Prisoners greet Iraqi amnesty with joy; U.S. dismisses release as a ploy by Saddam
Mon Oct 21,12:26 PM ET
By JEROME DELAY, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Convicted thief Ali Karim Hassan, walking free from a prison outside Baghdad under a wide and sudden amnesty, pledged to start a new life — and says he owes it all to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
The "full and complete and final amnesty" of common and political prisoners the Iraqi government announced Sunday prompted wild, emotional scenes at prison gates, but skepticism abroad.
In neighboring Iran, a haven for Shiite Muslims opponents of Saddam, a top Iraqi Shiite religious leader said he had no confirmation of the release of any prominent Shiite political prisoners. Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Modarresi called all of Iraq a prison.
"Today, the Iraqi people, more than any other time, wish for freedom from the large prison the oppressive regime has created," Modarresi said in a statement released to The Associated Press Monday.
Sobhi Al Jumaily, the London-based representative of the Iraqi Communist Party, said in a telephone interview with the AP in Cairo that he had no confirmation of the release of hundreds of party members jailed by Saddam — including leaders like Safa Al Hafedh, Sabah Al Dorra and Aida Yassin
Among Iraq's most prominent political prisoners is Aziz Seyed Jassim, a writer, journalist and former communist who was arrested in 1991 after the Gulf War (news - web sites) for publishing calls for greater democracy in Iraq.
Al Jumaily said many of Saddam's detained opponents may not be covered by the amnesty because the regime does not imprison them under normal rules, instead detaining them in informal prisons like the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee and presidential palaces.
"Who can be sure that thousands of people detained there were freed?" Al Jumaily said.
Amnesty International, which as accused Iraq of holding tens of thousands of political prisoners, sent a letter to the Iraqi government Monday welcoming the amnesty but asking for the names of the political detainees who benefited.
Iraqi officials did not say how many prisoners were covered. Reporters saw thousands leaving prisons, many believed to be common criminals.
At Abu Ghareb prison just outside Baghdad, a traffic jam of cars and crowds formed Sunday as prisoners' relatives, hearing word of the amnesty, arrived in search of loved ones. Shoving matches erupted as guards tried to keep impatient relatives from entering to search for inmates. Inmates ran out, some carrying television sets and other personal items from their cells, to meet crying, shouting relatives.
In the confusion, some people appeared to have been injured, crushed by the crowd.
Prisoners who were not met by relatives set out on foot for Baghdad.
"We are ready to defend our leader and country with our blood," said Hassan, who walked out of Abu Ghareb prison after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for stealing a welding machine.
"Today, we are given a great chance to start a new life and I will try my best to avoid jail," he added.
Freed prisoners carrying their belongings in plastic shopping bags chanted: "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam!"
Ahmed Muhsen, a former civil servant who had served one out of three years for squandering public money before his release Sunday, described Saddam as "the best leader in the world."
The government called the amnesty a way of thanking the nation for supporting Saddam, who claimed 100 percent of Iraqis voted for him in a presidential referendum last week. A decree attributed to Saddam, read repeatedly on national television Sunday, said the amnesty applied to "anyone imprisoned or arrested for political or any other reason."
In another broadcast Sunday, Justice Minister Munthir al-Shawi said the amnesty will not cover those who spied "for the Zionist entity," referring to Israel, and the United States.
State-run television said other Arabs imprisoned or detained in Iraq were included in the amnesty, but Iraqi officials did not say whether that included Kuwaiti prisoners of the 1991 Gulf War. Kuwait accuses Iraq of failing to account for more than 600 Kuwaitis and nationals of other countries who disappeared during the Gulf crisis. Baghdad insists it has released all war prisoners and in recent years, started accusing Kuwait of not cooperating to determine the fate of 1,150 Iraqis who went missing during the crisis.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been involved in the Iraqi-Kuwaiti prisoner impasse, said Monday it had no information on whether Kuwaiti Gulf War prisoners were included.
Saddam has made a number of attempts to rally public support recently. Under regulations announced several weeks ago, plots of land have been given to loyalists in the army, government and the ruling party. A mortgage bank, which closed down years ago, was reopened to provide interest-free loans to selected officials. Cars were sold at discount prices.
Iraq's Babil newspaper, owned by Saddam's son Odai, described the amnesty "as a lesson to Bush in true democracy."
U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has called for Saddam to be toppled, accusing him of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and harboring terrorists, and has expressed concerns about Iraq's human rights record."
In Washington on Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said the Iraqi amnesty was "typical" of Saddam's "use of human beings for these political purposes of his."
The newly freed prisoners "better watch out where the next door is that puts them right back in jail," Powell said on ABC's "This Week."
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