Maliki to opposition political bloc: Shut up or we will prosecute you too

Prime Minister Maliki gave his reponse on Wednesday to the cross-party group of legislators that conducted a sit-in in Sadr City on Sunday and demanded and end to the fighting and an investigation of human rights abuses. Maliki told them the attacks in Sadr City will continue until the Mahdi Army is disarmed and dissolved (this is the first time Maliki has openly said that is the aim); he associated the Mahdi Army with AlQaeda and others as groups to be terminated; he said nothing about the Badr organization; he told the legislators it is they who are are responsible for the prolongation of the fighting; and in not-so-thinly veiled terms he threatened the legislators, telling them that if they continue to object, they could be charged with inciting to violence and fitna.

The remarks were made during a Baghdad press-conference Wednesday April 30. Here are the key points in the AlJazeera summary of what he said:

"The final objective", Maliki said, "which we will not desist from, is the disarming of the militias and the dissolution of the Mahdi Army, and the Islamic Army, and the Army of Omar, and the termination of AlQaeda". He said this will be the final solution and the gateway to security and stability for the political process.

Maliki accused the Mahdi Army of being a group of outlaws, and of taking human hostages during the Sadr City fighting. [This could be in view of the fact that the latest post-March25 death toll is 925*, not around 400 as previously reported. So there needs to be spin for that].

Maliki said "they use the lies and the morals of the prior Saddam regime, and I know that they strike electrical facilities, prevent [the delivery of] food..." [and so on and so forth].

And he defined [says this very respectful-sounding AlJazeera report] the government's conditions respecting the attempts undertaken by a number of blocs and parties and political personalities to end the security tension connected with these armed operations. He explained that these conditions include: dissolution of the militias and no intervention in the affairs of the state or its patrols or its institutions or ministries; no establishment of tribunals and no intervention in the security apparatus; turning over of wanted persons and coooperation with the state in prosecuting them.

And Maliki threatened the voices of those within the system who criticize the government's military operations against armed groups, and he accused them of being instigators stirring up the state, adding: "These people--whether they are members of parliament or members of political blocs or parties, or [even] members of the government, who are not hesitant about stirring up fitna--these people will bear the responsibility". The Prime Minister said: "I say to them: Be patient because the affair will come to an end, and the judiciary is available, because it is you who are pouring oil on the fires and fanning the flames of fitna."

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* 925 was reported on Wednesday as the death-toll for Sadr City, but Azzaman on Thursday describes the figure as for Sadr City and Basra together, and AlHayat also implies it could be a global figure for the period since the campaign started on March 25.