Now is not the time for the Iraqi government to take specific action against the militias. It's going to be worked over time.
Quotes about militias (16 Quotes)
In the name of participatory democracy, President George W. Bush's Arab reform policies are actively enfranchising radical Islamist parties with armed militias in Iraq, where they form the government in Lebanon, where Hezbollah now holds government ministries and now, potentially, in Palestine,
We are investing a great deal of resources in the police and army. Those forces will not be regarded as credible forces if run by a minister who is sectarian or has ties to militias. It undermines the efforts to build these forces.
deeply concerned about continued reports of political violence, internal displacement of the population, the activities of armed militias unchecked by the government and police action that have violated basic political rights and freedoms.
Civilians are still being attacked and fleeing their villages even as we speak, many months after the government committed itself to bring the militias under control, ... It is urgent to take action now.
Arms should be in the hands of the government. There is a law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed forces.
This is no random attack. This is the result of months of preparation by Sudanese officials and coordination with militias.
I believe that there are elements of extra-legal militias that are moving around doing some of this damage. There may be people with misguided loyalties in some of the security services, although less in the army than in the police.
essentially protective for Afghans in their centers of population, although (NATO) recognizes that if we're going to keep the Taliban and al-Qaida and the other anti-coalition militias at arm's length from Afghani officials and protect them from murder and assassination that's ongoing ... we have to engage in combat operations that take the offensive into the mountains, into the remote regions where they have their bases and their sanctuaries and keep them off guard.
The militias are an issue that the next government will have to deal with. Iraq needs a strong national army, a strong national police. It needs weapons in the hands of those who are authorized to have them.
The serious crimes by the Sudanese government and the government-supported militias must be met with serious consequences. We must work for tough international economic sanctions on the Sudanese government.
Until and unless we could disband these militias, this country won't be able to function properly.
We cannot now have a generation of aspirations for peace being destroyed (in southern Sudan) by the Lord's Resistance Army coming in from northern Uganda and from other ethnic militias in southern Sudan.
The principal strategy of all these actors, both state actors and proxy militias, is to displace people in order to undermine the support base of your opponent.
There are still too many reports of sectarian-like attacks. I think the Iraqi government understands the importance of not allowing people to really take justice into their own hands or allow armed militias to operate outside of their control.
We think this is an important first step and we urge the prosecutor to go further and higher, up to the political actors who were manipulating these militias for their own ends.