IRAQ: The adoption yesterday by the Iraqi interim government of a national emergency law has been welcomed by a majority of Iraqis fed up with 14 months of lawlessness and insecurity.
Iraqis of every rank and station are prey to thieves, kidnappers, and extortionists whose depredations go unchecked and become targets or collateral victims in attacks by the resistance on US and other occupying forces.
According to estimates by human rights organisations, as many as 11,000 Iraqis have died due to criminal activities and attacks by insurgents since the fall of the Baathist regime.
Most Iraqis are prepared to accept a temporary curtailment of freedoms and the restriction of rights if security is reimposed because without security there is no freedom and there are no rights. They live in fear at home, in the workplace, and on the streets of their towns and cities.
While expressing pleasure over the introduction of partial martial law, most Iraqis are likely to be disappointed over Mr Allawi's postponement of a planned amnesty for rank-and-file members of the Iraqi resistance. He is expected to pardon Iraqi fighters who have not killed or raped other Iraqis. The amnesty is to exclude those who command or finance resistance groups, as well as foreign Islamist elements, who have imbued Iraqi nationalists with religious fervour and recruited them to take part in a campaign to drive Westerners from the Muslim world. Most Iraqis want to see foreign Islamists responsible for the killing and maiming of thousands of Iraqis captured or expelled from the country.
Mr Allawi has come under strong pressure from Washington to defer or drop the amnesty because Iraqi insurgents who have mounted fatal operations against US troops would be included. An amnesty would be very difficult for the Bush administration to swallow at a time when its popularity is sliding due to rising US casualties in Iraq and as it is gearing up for the critical months of the presidential election campaign.
Nevertheless Mr Allawi seems to be determined to carry out an amnesty. He is well aware it will be very popular with Iraqis. He is facing an election early in 2005.
He knows a majority of his countrymen and women see resistance attacks on US troops and bases as part of the struggle against an illegal occupation. Iraqis, including members of the government, also believe that if there were no resistance, foreign forces would remain in their country indefinitely.
Iraqis regard an amnesty as the carrot complementing the stick of martial law.
They argue that assembling all the state's security assets to crush the insurgency will not bring victory unless nationalist, disaffected, unemployed Iraqis who have joined the resistance can be persuaded to abandon the struggle, back the interim government and take up gainful employment. Indeed, Iraqis argue that a heavy-handed crackdown on its own could prompt Iraqis to flock to resistance groups.
Since Mr Allawi has taken the decision to issue an amnesty, there could be a major rift between him and the US administration on this issue. Mr Allawi, who claims to have secured full sovereignty on June 28th, cannot afford to lose in this battle of wills. Once it became public, the tussle between Baghdad and Washington over the amnesty became a test of strength of the Allawi government.
If the prime minister fails to impose his policy, he could forfeit the goodwill of Iraqis.