MEP accuses Iraqi PM of committing genocide against Sunni Muslims

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has been accused of committing “genocide” against the Sunni Muslim population under the pretext of his “war on terror”. Struan Stevenson MEP, who made the accusation, is the president of the European parliament’s delegation for relations with Iraq. He said that Al-Maliki is carrying out a “violent terrorist campaign” in all the Sunni governorates in Iraq.

The latest military campaigns in Fallujah and Ramadi in Al-Anbar Governorate, said Stevenson, are the “last campaign for Al-Maliki to eliminate his party’s opposition ahead of the elections on April 30.” The Scottish MEP noted that around 1,400 people have been killed in the latest campaign; thousands more have been wounded.

Sunni tribal militias have repeatedly denied that they are hiding Al-Qaeda terrorists or other groups, as they have been accused by Al-Maliki. They drove government forces from Fallujah and large parts of Ramadi.

Former US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates accused Al-Maliki recently of treating Sunni Iraqis in a hostile way. In a TV interview, Gates claimed that the prime minister promotes Shiite domination over the government in Iraq, while he distances the Sunnis. Iraqi Sunnis, tribal leaders and politicians who oppose the Iraqi government accuse Al-Maliki of misusing what he calls “the war on terrorism” to promote sectarianism.

They said that he raised the “terrorism” slogan to attack Sunni protesters who have been on the streets of Iraq calling for the release of political prisoners held by the government and the cancellation of the death penalty in the Iraqi Constitution. It is used, they claim, mainly to execute members of the Sunni opposition.

Source: Al Resalah