Iraq's interim prime minister signed a long-anticipated law that allows him to impose emergency measures to battle a persistent "insurgency", an official in his office said Wednesday.
The new law gives Iraqi officials the ability to institute martial law for limited periods of time and under special circumstances.
The new laws give Allawi the right to impose curfews, to conduct search operations and detain individuals with weapons, once he receives unanimous approval from the Presidential Council. They also give him the power to assign governors, including military leaders, in specific areas, and they empower him to freeze the assets of suspects and monitor their communications.
Iraq's Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said the premier would need to get warrants from an Iraqi court for each step.
In its current form, the new law calls for the revision of emergency measures every 60 days, contingent on the approval of the Cabinet, including the president and the country's two vice presidents, said an official in the Defense Ministry speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There will not be an automatic renewal of the law," said the official. It will be revised "so that we don't have emergency laws in place for 20 years."
As the plan was announced, masked gunmen battled Iraqi forces in central Baghdad, and at least four people were killed. Mortars landed near a residence used by Allawi, and Iraqi police also defused a massive car bomb elsewhere in the capital.
In one incident, four mortar rounds rocked a neighborhood near the headquarters of the interim prime minister's political party Wednesday. Six people were injured, an Interior Ministry official said.
The attacks on a stretch of Zeitoun Street in central Baghdad also hit near a home used by Allawi, the official said, requesting anonymity. Allawi was not present at the home at the time, the official said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
