Patrick Cockburn: Iraqi PM Escalates Crisis, Ultimatum to Kurds!

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has demanded the Kurds hand over his Sunni Vice
-President, Tariq al Hashemi, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued on charges of terrorism Mr. Maliki said ominously that Mr Hashemi, who has taken refuge in Kurdistan, will receive a fair trial, as that of Saddam Hussein, who was executed in 2006. Mr Maliki is deliberately escalating the political crisis, which is seen by the Sunni minority as a bid by the Shia dominated government to marginalize them. The Kurds, who have total political and military control of most of northern Iraq, are likely to refuse to hand over Mr Hashemi, and are seeking to act as mediators between him and the Prime Minister. Mr Hashemi said the accusations against him, that he ran death squads made up of his bodyguards against his opponents, are fabrications. The charges are based on confessions from his guards, who said that he personally paid them for the attacks, but these allegations may well have been extracted by torture or the threat of it. Mr Maliki had earlier claimed that an attempt to assassinate him with a remotely detonated bomb three weeks ago outside the parliament building inside the closely guarded Green Zone had been arranged by Mr Hashemi's guards. The details revealed about the alleged plot suggest that, if it was an assassination bid, it was a poorly organized one unlikely to succeed!