Al-Maliki: Alleged shooting challenges sovereignty

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians – allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards – and other violence involving the company pose “serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq” and cannot be accepted.\n“The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing,” he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly.\nNoting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: “There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq.” In Arabic, he used the word “tajawiz” which can be translated either as “affronts” or “challenges.”\nHowever, Maliki left open the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution to the problem of Blackwater. “We have coordinated with the American side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable” those responsible, he said.\nIn the interview, Maliki defended his government and spoke up for the rights of Iraqis to manage their own affairs. He said that his country is making progress toward political reconciliation and that 2008 would be a year of political and economic progress and reconstruction for Iraq.\nSpeaking in a calm voice, al-Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said al-Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year U.S. intervention in Iraq.\nMaliki said it is normal for any government to be criticized, but he feels certain that he has the backing in Washington he needs.\nThe U.S. administration is scrambling to quell Iraqi anger over the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square, in which Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy allegedly opened fire on Iraqis. The Moyock, N.C.-based company says its contractors were responding to an armed attack. Iraqi officials and witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked, although they have offered conflicting details.\nThe Interior Ministry banned Blackwater from operating in Iraq, but rolled back after the U.S. agreed to the joint investigation. The company resumed guarding a reduced number of American convoys on Friday.\nThe Iraqi Interior Ministry complained that U.S. authorities ignored repeated complaints about past Blackwater behavior as the company was implicated in six other fatal shootings, including one on Feb. 7 outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad that killed three building guards.\n“Our complaints went nowhere,” deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said.\nU.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the Americans asked the Iraqis to share any reports on Blackwater’s behavior.\n“We have no official documentation on file from our Iraqi partners requesting clarification of any incident, but we’re open to sharing relevant findings from our past investigations,” she said.\n– Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Sinan Salaheddin and Katarina Kratovac in Baghdad and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in New York contributed to this report.