Baghdad - Iraqi lawmakers approved a $ 400 million settlement controversial Saturday for the Americans, who claim that they have been abused by the regime of Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Kuwait by 1990.
The regulation is part of an agreement concluded between Baghdad and Washington last year to end years of legal battles by the citizens of the United States who claim they were tortured or traumatised, including held hundreds as human shields.
Many Iraqis considered victims of the regime of Saddam Hussein and the invasion led by the United States in 2003 and ask why they should pay for the faults committed by the ousted dictator.
Legislators approved the regulations, by a majority, after listening to abroad and the Finance Ministers so that the head of the Central Bank describe why it is necessary, said Abbas al-Bayati of the block of the State of political right.
Another legislator, Mahmud Othman, said by approving the settlement, Iraq would be to protect themselves from prosecution more in the future which could be well over $ 400 million which was agreed to.
"They very well explained what was the colony and how it will be negative if we do not approve it," he said. "This is why people have been convinced."
Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr affiliated legislators rejected the settlement, said one of the legislators of the block, Hakim al-Zamili. Al-Zamili, stated that he was surprised that so many legislators who had been arguing against the legislation before the session of reversed the course at the last minute Saturday.
"It is better compensate the Iraqi martyrs and prisoners as Americans," he said.
Saddam's regime has held hundreds of Americans during the period that preceded the war in the Gulf, their use as human shields in an attempt to stave off an attack by the United States and their allies hostage. Most of the Americans had been living and working in the Kuwait and after having been taken hostage are dispersed sites around Iraq.
Many Americans continued legal proceedings for years against the Government of Saddam Hussein and maintained their legal fight after Saddam was overthrown in 2003 and a new Government came to power.
Also, some former American soldiers who were captured by the army of Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war and repeatedly tortured and abused continued as relatives of the American oil workers who were working at the Kuwait when they were picked up by the Iraqi guards along the border.
We know exactly who will be entitled to the money under the regulations. When asked who would receive the money, a spokesman for the Embassy of the United States in Baghdad, David Ranz, said: "We are not able to confirm whether specific cases or claims by specific persons are covered by the agreement." He refused to comment further on.
The Iraq was under a tightening of the time to approve the regulation before 30 June, when Iraq will assume the responsibility of overseeing its oil revenue account. Since 2003, the country's oil revenues were held in an account based in New York, it houses claims of international creditors. United Nations-backed protection expires when oil revenues are transferred to Iraqi control and Iraq could face international creditors like any other country.
According to the site Web of Parliament, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari told legislators that the Iraqi Government still had the right to submit his own requests for compensation for the US Government.
Many Iraqis harbor deep resentment toward the United States for the bloodshed triggered after the overthrow of Saddam. Eight years later, violence is still rife the country.
In the northern city of Mosul a suicide bomber jump himself Saturday near a point of the Iraqi army, killing seven people. Police and medical officials said 20 people were injured in the explosion. Five of the dead were Iraqi soldiers.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
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