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BAGHDAD - Iraq's embattled Prime Minister offered an olive branch yesterday to former supporters of Saddam Hussein, including the army, calling for them to join a peace process in the war-racked country.
Opening a national reconciliation conference, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki urged former soldiers from the ousted dictator's defeated army to join new security forces to fight the armed factions tearing the country apart.
In a stark reminder of the scale of the conflict, 53 bullet-ridden corpses were discovered across Baghdad on Saturday and a further 11 people were killed in a trail of violence across Iraq.
Maliki also urged delegates to review the law banning tens of thousands of Saddam's Baath Party activists from working in the civil service.
It was not clear if true representatives of the armed groups waging war against the Government or influential members of the ousted Baath Party turned up to hear the Prime Minister.
"The Iraqi Army opens its doors to officers and soldiers from the former army who wish to serve the country," Maliki said and called for a review of the de-Baathification process that lost so many Sunnis their jobs after the US invasion.
- AFP
