Anti-deal protests in Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: The Sayyed al-Shohadaa (Master of Martyrs) Movement on Saturday staged a demonstration in Basra, where scores of civilians in the city marched to condemn the security agreement planned to be signed between Iraq and the United States. “The movement organized the demonstration today in the central Basra area of al-Ishar to demand imposing Iraq’s sovereignty in the security pact,” a protester, Hassan Kareem, told IraqiNews.com. The deal is triggering a row amongst government, religious and popular circles in Iraq. Some government officials say hat the U.S. side has offered great concessions to ink a final draft of the agreement while others claim that it still contains articles undermining Iraq’s sovereignty and independence. The protesters called for “guaranteeing the Iraqi people’s rights in the pact and not to allow foreign and U.S. troops in Iraq to have a free hand to act outside the parameters of the law”. The eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, the stronghold of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement and Mahdi Army militias, had witnessed 10 days ago a similar demonstration in which hundreds of Sadr supporters expressed rejection of the security deal. The agreement, if endorsed, will govern the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq as the UN mandate granted to the United States will expire late this year. According the draft pact, the U.S. presence in Iraq will continue until December 31, 2008, the date after which the Iraqi government would be entitled to ask the U.S. administration to withdraw its troops from Iraq. AmR (S) 1