BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government called on parliament Wednesday to approve a $400 million settlement for Americans who claim they were abused by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said that Iraq will set up a system to protect funds that have been deposited abroad from unsettled claims of victims who say they were affected by Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the U.N.’s mandated war reparations to that country.
The twin moves come as the Iraqi government seeks to restore the country’s international standing and to emerge from the shadow of sanctions imposed following the Kuwait invasion, which led to the 1991 Gulf War.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet unanimously approved the compensation plan in September after Baghdad and Washington reached an agreement to end years of legal battles by U.S. citizens who claim to have been tortured or traumatized during Saddam’s 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait.
But the requisite parliamentary approval was delayed due to the nine months of political wrangling as the prime minister fought rival factions to hold onto his job after inconclusive March 7 elections. He finally cobbled together a fragile coalition government in late December.
“The Iraqi government is keen to fulfill its international obligations and to put an end to the pending issues resulting from previous policies,” al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
Saddam’s regime held hundreds of Americans hostage during the run-up to the Gulf War, using them as human shields in hopes of staving off an attack by the U.S. and its allies.
Many of the Americans pursued lawsuits for years against Saddam’s government and kept up their legal fight after Saddam was overthrown in 2003 and a new government came to power.
The measure is likely to face opposition in the 325-member parliament, which includes a large number of Shiite lawmakers from the bloc loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as well as hard-line Sunnis.
Many Iraqis consider themselves victims of both Saddam’s regime and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and wonder why they should pay money for wrongs committed by the ousted dictator.
Al-Dabbagh has said the $400 million sum is a compromise, given that the U.S. claims “exceed $10 billion.”
The United Nations established the Development Fund of Iraq to handle oil and other revenues after Saddam’s ouster. The international protection of Iraqi funds offered by the DFI will expire on June 30.
“The government asked the Central Bank of Iraq to immediately open accounts before May 1 to transfer funds from DFI,” al-Dabbagh said. He added the Central Bank should agree on “a specific and transparent mechanism to calculate payments to Kuwait,” of 5 percent from its oil revenues.
Iraq has been struggling to regain a sense of normalcy after years of violence, with near-daily attacks continuing.
Gunmen killed a police captain as he was driving to work on a highway near the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, police and hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
In the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, an Iraqi journalist said he was arrested Wednesday for participating in a demonstration against Iran last week.
Journalist Ali Mahmud, who works for the Kurdish newspaper Awena, said the demonstration in front of the Iranian consulate in the city of Irbil was properly licensed. He said two other protesters also were arrested for ripping portraits of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and throwing rocks at the consulate.
Kurdish police refused to comment on the arrests.