IRAQ: NEW IRAQI CABINET SWORN-IN IN BAGHDAD/ MASS GRAVE FOUND IN NORTHERN KURDISH CITY OF ARBIL

Record ID: 648192

  • Title: IRAQ: NEW IRAQI CABINET SWORN-IN IN BAGHDAD/ MASS GRAVE FOUND IN NORTHERN KURDISH CITY OF ARBIL
  • Date: 8th May 2005
  • Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MAY 9, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF CABINET HEADQUARTERS 0.07 2. CU: IRAQI FLAG FLYING 0.12 3. CU: SIGN READING: CABINET 0.19 4. MEMBERS OF NEW GOVERNMENT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH 0.24 5. PAN ACROSS MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT 0.34 6. WIDE OF NEWLY APPOINTED DEFENCE MINISTER SAADOUN AL-DULAIMI TAKING OATH BEFORE CABINET MEMBERS 0.41 7. DEFENCE MINISTER SAADOUN AL-DULAIMI (M) BEING SWORN IN/ PRIME MINISTER IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI STANDING ON HIS LEFT 0.48 8. CABINET MEMBERS ATTENDING CEREMONY 0.54 9. OUTGOING DEFENCE MINISTER HAZIM AL-SHAALAN (R) AND THE NEWLY APPOINTED DEFENCE MINISTER SAADOUN AL-DULAIMI WALKING INTO ROOM AT DEFENCE MINISTRY 1.06 10. CLOSER VIEW OF SHAALAN (R) AND DULAIMI SPEAKING TO MEDIA 1.15 11. JOURNALISTS TAKING NOTES 1.21 12. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) SAADOUN AL-DULEIMI, NEWLY APPOINTED DEFENCE MINISTER, SAYING: "Today I took over the job and I think that security is a top priority for Iraq and the Iraqis. I also think that Iraq has become an intersection for international terrorism and therefore the suffering of the Iraqi government and people will be much more than in other countries." 1.57 13. ZOOM IN: SHAALAN HANDING OVER DOCUMENTS TO DULAIMI 2.16 (W3) ARBIL, IRAQ (MAY 8, 2005) (REUTERS) 14. VARIOUS OF MASS GRAVE (3 SHOTS) 2.34 15. CU'S: BONES BURIED IN EARTH (3 SHOTS) 2.51 16. (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) PESHMERGA (KURDISH MILITIA) MEMBER MUHSN UTHMANN SAYING: "This building served as intelligence headquarters at the time of Saddam Hussein. As part of the reconstruction efforts, sewage treatment networks are being built in the area. While workers were digging here they found a number of bodies. The digging was stopped. Most of the bodies were civilians." 3.18 17. MV/SV: PEOPLE STANDING BY MASS GRAVE (2 SHOTS) 3.29 18. VARIOUS OF SKULLS (2 SHOTS) 3.41 19. LV: TRENCH WHERE BONES WERE FOUND 3.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD AND ARBIL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA4CO9BDUU9U80QT6DKSLFGC9AD
  • Story Text: New Iraqi government sworn in. Mass grave
    discovered in Northern Iraq.


    The new Iraqi government was sworn in on Monday (May
    9) in a special ceremony held at the cabinet headquarters
    inside Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone. The ministers
    were sworn in in the presence of Prime Minister Ibrahim
    al-Jaafari and a judge.

    Iraq's parliament approved the selection of six new
    government ministers on Sunday (May 8) but the proposed
    human rights minister rejected the post, leaving Iraq with
    an incomplete cabinet three months after elections.

    Hisham al-Shibli, who had previously been named justice
    minister, told Reuters he had been appointed purely because
    he was a Sunni Arab and he was rejecting the new job
    because he was against sectarian politics.

    The swearing-in was held amid tight security in the
    city which saw heavy traffic hours before the event.

    The newly-appointed defence minister said that
    restoring security will be his ministry's main priority.

    "Today I took over the job and I think that security is
    a top priority for Iraq and the Iraqis. I also think that
    Iraq has become an intersection for international terrorism
    and therefore the suffering of the Iraqi government and
    people will be much more than in other countries," Saadoun
    Al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab from the western city of Anbar
    said during a handover ceremony with outgoing defence
    minister Hazim al-Shaalan.

    Duleimi was a lieutenant colonel in Saddam Hussein's
    General Security Directorate. He left Iraq in 1984 to live
    in exile in Saudi Arabia and returned after Saddam's fall
    in April 2003. A moderate, he comes from a powerful Sunni
    tribe in Anbar province, the homeland of the insurgency.

    Shaalan said that seven employees of the ministry,
    including a number of directors, had been killed in
    attacks, which he said the ministry had been a victim of
    almost daily.

    Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq during the rule of
    Saddam Hussein, were sidelined in the January 30 elections,
    winning only 17 of parliament's 275 seats as most Sunni
    Arabs stayed away from the polls due to calls for a boycott
    and fears of violence.

    The Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs that dominate parliament
    had hoped to involve Sunni Arabs in the political process
    by appointing several to the new cabinet.

    A mass grave was found in the northern Iraqi Kurdish
    city of Arbil, Kurdish sources said on Sunday (May 9).

    "This building served as intelligence headquarters at
    the time of Saddam Hussein. As part of the reconstruction
    efforts, sewage treatment networks are being built in the
    area. While workers were digging here they found a number
    of bodies. The digging was stopped. Most of the bodies
    were civilians," said Peshmerga (Kurdish militia) member
    Muhsn Uthmann.

    Many of the victims, including women and children were
    wearing traditional Kurdish costume that were riddled with
    bullets, witnesses said.

    Baktiar Amin, Iraq's outgoing Human Rights Minister
    recently said there are at least 290 mass grave sites
    around Iraq. He said an estimated 500,000 people were
    killed by the former Saddam Hussein regime, just in Kurdish
    areas, and about 50 percent of Iraq's population is missing
    at least one family member.

    Last month, a mass grave containing dozens of bodies
    was discovered at a former army camp in Kifri, about 150 km
    north of Baghdad.
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