Kurdistan MPs are now discussing the general amnesty bill inside parliament in the absence of media.
Parliament Speaker Arsalan Bayiz said the session will be held without the presence of media due to the "sensitivity" of the bill.

He added that an announcement will be made once the bill has been ratified.

This is the fifth session held to discuss the bill.

A group of civil society activists demonstrated in Erbil yesterday and demanded the Kurdistan parliament not to allow the perpetrators of the mass execution of Iraqi Kurds benefit from the bill at any rate.

Kurdistan Region-based chief for Kurdocide Watch Organization (CAK) Ahmad Majid said that even Iraqi law has exempted those who are involved in genocide, war and human rights violation.

"We doubt [Kurdistan's] general amnesty bill and are concerned that it may sanction general amnesty for such crimes, too. Therefore, we demand that these three crimes, genocide, war and human rights violations, be set apart," Majid said.

Peshraw Rasheed, a member of the Association for Advocating the Rights of Anfal Victims in Garmiyan, also insisted that the bill should not cover those who were involved in the Anfal campaign aginst the Kurdish people.

Kurds were exposed to two major forms of mass execution during Saddam Hussein's regime. They were either showered with chemical agents, as happened in Halabja, or exiled in large groups to southern and central Iraq to be killed or buried alive in mass graves.






AKnews