The US-led coalition officially ordered Iraqis on Saturday to disarm by mid-June, part of a high-profile effort to get weapons off the streets and return public security to cities under American occupation.
Anyone found with unauthorized weapons after June 14 will be detained and face criminal charges, US Central Command in Florida said, quoting a "national order" from the top civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
"No one in Iraq, unless authorized, may possess, conceal, hide or bury these weapons," the United States said. "No one can trade, sell, barter, give or exchange automatic or heavy weapons with or to any person who is not an authorized representative of coalition forces."
During a 14-day amnesty period that begins June 1, Iraqis will be permitted to turn in unauthorized weapons at "weapons-control points" throughout the country.
The official announcement from Centcom came a day after Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander of US ground forces in Iraq, said citizens would be instructed to disarm.
"The intent is not to completely disarm the Iraqi population of all weapons. That is neither practical nor necessary," McKiernan said Friday.
Coalition forces have been struggling to maintain order in postwar Iraq, and have identified an armed citizenry as one of the biggest obstacles.
Under Bremer's order, Iraqis must place unloaded, disassembled weapons into a clear plastic bag provided by Coalition forces and walk slowly to the collection point.
Collection points will be at police stations and other designated locations and will be jointly staffed by Iraqi and coalition forces. Weapons may only be turned in during the day, and guns turned in will either be destroyed or used by the new Iraqi army and police.
Small arms -- including small automatic rifles semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols -- are allowed in homes and businesses. Public use is prohibited.
One group that may stay armed, at least on some level, is the peshmerga, a Kurdish fighting force that helped the United States during the war.
"The peshmerga are a little different story," McKiernan said. "The peshmerga fought with the coalition forces during this [war], and we are looking at leaving them with some of their weapons."
They would be permitted to keep their weapons only in certain northern regions, McKiernan said.
"We have not decided exactly which weapons they will continue to possess," he said. "But they will be allowed to keep some weapons."
Meanwhile, an ORHA spokesman said Saturday that the electricity situation in Baghdad is gradually improving, and power shortages had mostly been eliminated in other parts of the country. Electricity is considered a crucial path to better security in postwar Iraq.
Military officials said increases in patrols by both coalition forces and Iraqi police had contributed to a decrease in crime and lawlessness.
Major Scott Slaten, a spokesman for the newly arrived 1st Armored Division, which is gradually taking over responsibility for security in Baghdad, said there would be a sharp increase in patrols in coming days.
Only coalition forces, police officers and other uniformed officials under coalition authority are allowed to possess most automatic or heavy weaponry.
Owning a firearm is a matter of pride and a sign of manhood to many Iraqi men, especially in rural areas where tribalism and traditional values endure.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS