Paper Publishes New Details of Insurgency Amnesty Deal

The Times (U.K.) reports that the Iraqi government is ready to announce a sweeping peace plan that includes amnesty for legitimate resistance fighters. Under the plan, there would be a U.N.-approved timeline for withdrawal of foreign troops; a halt to U.S. operations against insurgents; and compensation for attack victims.

About the politically charged issue of amnesty for insurgents, a senior U.S. official told The Times, “This is what we did after the Second World War, after the Civil War, after the War of Independence. It may be unpalatable and unsavoury but it is how wars end.”

The Times (UK):

The Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday in a last-ditch effort to end the Sunni insurgency that has taken the country to the brink of civil war.

The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms, The Times can reveal.

The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces.

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