Give ISIS collaborators a second 'chance', ex interior minister al-Araji

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq’s former Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji told an audience at the Erbil Forum on Friday that the Iraqi government must take 'brave decisions' and give repentant Islamic State militants another chance to reintegrate into the society rather than pursuing a policy of vengeance. 

"I will help him [ISIS member] by giving him a chance to give up his weapon because he has reached a stage where he say 'If I give it up in my region they will kill me and if I give it up to the government they will execute me, finally, I have no option but keeping the weapon in my hand'" Alaraji told an audience of Iraqi and KRG officials, foreign diplomats, international and regional experts at a conference in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. "We must be able to take brave decisions."

Thousands of Iraqis who collaborated with ISIS are now facing trial, with many expected to be executed in what Human Rights Watch has described as 'deeply flawed' proceedings.

Al-Araji who was part of the opposition to Saddam Hussein lauded the Kurdish approach to dealing with those who had collaborated with the previous regime in the 1991 uprising in the north of the country.

He suggested that the current Iraqi government should take a cue from the Kurdish experience.

The Kurdish leaders "did not treat them [collaborators of regime] with the language of retaliation even with those who were with the regime," Al-Araji said. "They were embraced in order to be given a chance."

In 1991 leaders of the Kurdistani Front who had just liberated the three Kurdish provinces declared an amnesty to all collaborators with the former regime, among them thousands of soldiers.

Al-Araji was particularly candid about the problems facing Iraq and warned of a 'crisis of trust' which he urged the authorities to address. "Our problem in Iraq is a crisis of trust. This is what caused Erbil-Baghdad problems, as well as problems between Baghdad and other provinces and problems between political parties and blocs."

The Erbil Forum is the first international forum organized by Rudaw Media Network which brings government officials, parliamentarians, regional and international experts to discuss pressing issues in the region. This year's forum is titled Perspective on Security and Sovereignty in the Middle East.

Areas retaken from ISIS are plagued by intercommunal violence with the court system struggling to deal with overload of cases involving ISIS crimes.