Prime minister ready to release 2,500 detainees

Detainees involved in violence and Saddam's supporters won't be released.
WASHINGTON POST
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi prime minister announced Tuesday that he would release 2,500 detainees from jail to try to calm tensions between Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups and head off spreading violence.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the move a "positive message and a chance for those who want to rethink their strategy." He specifically excluded detainees connected to violent attacks and supporters of the former government of Saddam Hussein from his amnesty.
The people to be released "are not Saddamists or terrorists," al-Maliki said. "They weren't involved in the bloodshed or imposing the sectarian mentality and cleansing. They are people who made mistakes."
The first group of 500 detainees will be released today, al-Maliki said. About 28,700 detainees are being held at U.S. and Iraqi detention facilities in Iraq, according to a U.N. human rights report issued last month.
Iraq's Interior Ministry, which controls the police force, holds about 5,000 of those detainees, even though the ministry is not supposed to keep detainees in custody for a long time. Sunni Arabs critical of the Shiite-dominated police force have regularly demanded the release of detainees, saying they are often tortured in police custody. The U.N. report also reported the accusations.
Conference planned
Leaders of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Sunni Arab organization, said Monday that they wouldn't participate in a broad-based national reconciliation conference June 20 unless all detainees were released. The Arab League, which is organizing the conference, hopes to attract a broad range of political, religious and tribal leaders, as well as some leaders of armed groups willing to lay down their arms.
Al-Maliki said the planned release of the 2,500 detainees wasn't an answer to the Sunni association's demands. But he said it proved the government's commitment to moving ahead with Iraq's future by creating "a positive environment" for peace.
"It is not a compromise," al-Maliki said. "Whoever wants to reconcile shouldn't make conditions. They should come to discuss and talk. Conversation is the main factor for reconciliation."
Al-Maliki said the move did not mean Iraq was changing its strategy for dealing with an epidemic of violence that has escalated since his government was formed 21/2 weeks ago.
"There is no change," al-Maliki said. "Using force against the terrorists will continue. Releasing detainees who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood will continue. And the national reconciliation process will continue."
Empty posts
So far, however, al-Maliki's government has been hamstrung by his inability to gain a consensus on who should run three security ministries with control of the police and army. At the news conference, he said the candidates will be presented at the next session of parliament; a session scheduled for last Sunday was postponed because of last-minute bickering.
Meanwhile, military authorities reported Tuesday night that a bomb killed a U.S. soldier of the 49th Military Police Brigade on Monday. Iraqi police and news services also reported the deaths of more than 30 Iraqis.