Iraqi Parties Differ On Insurgent Groups Joining Politics

[sabra]

Source: RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government's announcement that five insurgent groups have renounced violence and will join the political process has been met with different reactions by the country's political factions, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reports.

National Reconciliation Minister Amir al-Khuzaei said on March 23 that the names of the five groups who have agreed to disarm would be disclosed in the next few days.

He added that there were other groups in contact with the government who are considering taking similar action.

But Hakim Abbas, a member of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc within the Shi'ite National Alliance, says that the militants involved with these groups are pro-Saddam Baathists implicated in past wrongdoing.

He says accommodating them runs counter to all political understandings between the major factions.

Read more: http://www.rferl.org/content/iraq_parties_differ_insurgent_groups_politics/2349368.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Since when

had democracy been defined by whether or not groups are armed ?