Iraqi premier is granted wide emergency powers

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq unveiled emergency laws Wednesday to fight the enduring insurgency, even as masked gunmen battled Iraqi and American forces in Baghdad. The measures give the government broad powers -- including the right to impose limited martial law -- but some Iraqis questioned whether they would restore order.

The laws also allow Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to set curfews, send security forces on searches and freeze suspects' assets and monitor their communications. He can also assign military leaders to run restive areas.

Government officials insist built-in checks will protect Iraqis' rights and prevent the government from backsliding into dictatorship.

That was not much of a concern for some Baghdad residents. "Borrowing Saddam Hussein's big stick for a short period of time is fine if it's for the interest of the people," said pharmacist Salaheddin Hadi.

Allawi, a secular Shiite with close CIA links, can only invoke his new powers with the unanimous approval of the Presidential Council made up of the president, who is a Sunni Arab, and two vice presidents, a Kurd and a Shiite.

The laws are the first major step by Allawi's government to make good on its promise to end the violence that has killed hundreds of Iraqis over the past 15 months.

"The law ... is really designed to protect lives in Iraq, whether these lives are Iraqis or friends of Iraq," Allawi said. "We will use the law ... whenever it is necessary to defeat our enemies."

Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan announced the measures, saying, "Present conditions in Iraq have reached a stage that is impossible to tolerate."

Filipino hostage

In the latest in a rash of kidnappings, Al-Jazeera television aired video showing armed men holding a Filipino hostage whom they threatened to kill unless the Philippines withdraws its troops from Iraq within 72 hours. Other militants are holding an Egyptian truck driver.

With the violence continuing, some Iraqis welcomed the emergency measures, saying they were needed to improve security.

"This law must be strictly enforced," said Adel Issa, owner of a clothes shop in the Baghdad's upscale Mansour district.

Senior Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman said emergency powers by themselves would not solve security woes.

"Force alone does not solve security problems," he said. "Efforts must be made to achieve national reconciliation and grant amnesty to those who fought the occupiers," he said from London. Allawi's government already is considering such an amnesty.

A prominent member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Sunni group with links to insurgents, said he would welcome the new laws if they are used to target terrorists killing civilians.

"But we will oppose them if we see them benefiting the American occupiers," said Sheik Abdel-Salam al-Kobeisi.

Government officials took pains in announcing the new laws to point out the built-in protections of human rights.

"We realize this law might restrict some liberties, but there are a number of guarantees," said al-Hassan, the justice minister.

Allawi would need to get warrants from an Iraqi court every time he wants to invoke provisions of the new laws. Martial law could only be declared for 60 days or for the duration of the specific violence, whichever was shorter.

Allawi can only declare martial law in Kurdish-run areas of northern Iraq in coordination with the local government, said Human Rights Minister Bakhityar Amin, a Kurd.

He said the human rights and justice ministries will jointly monitor application of the laws.

A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new laws will not detract from the efforts of coalition forces, a 160,000-strong, mainly American contingent that remains here.

The U.S. military has been gradually handing over security responsibilities to Iraqi security forces, which remain ill-equipped and ill-trained to handle such duties alone.