Iraq's parliament speaker criticizes violation of human rights in Iraq

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al- Nujaifi criticized Monday the massive violations of human rights as the country's political process is plunged into political row. "The human rights in Iraq have suffered massive violations by using violence against individuals and properties, random detention, mistreatment, poor judicial procedures and targeting innocent citizens from different factions," the Sunni speaker said in a televised address to Iraqi people. The human rights have not been appropriately achieved amid the deteriorating political process in the country, despite that the public freedoms are the most important accomplishments in Iraq "as the country's constitution includes more than ten articles about them (public freedoms), at the forefront of which are those related to human rights," Nujaifi said. The speaker also criticized Nuri al-Maliki's government which opposes attempts by the predominantly Sunni provinces to establish semi-autonomous regions according to the Iraqi constitution. "No Iraqi has the right to violate a clear article in the constitution. We are looking forward to that all parties will respect the constitution, and will respond to the public opinion in every province that wants to establish a region, based on the willingness of its people whenever and wherever they want," Nujaifi said. His remarks came amid a political row between Maliki and his political rivals in the Sunni-backed bloc of Iraqia, as Maliki sought to arrest the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi on terror charges. In addition, Maliki asked the parliament to sack Sunni deputy Salih al-Mutlak after the latter dubbed Maliki "a dictator" in an interview with CNN, and on another occasion he told his own satellite TV channel of Babiliyah that "Maliki is worse than Saddam Hussein." However, Nujaifi said that "in spite of the weakness of the political process, it is still the only solution," adding that Iraq is facing increasing challenges and that "the cling to national unity" is the only way to build a powerful, prosperous and unified Iraq.