Wednesday, May 18, 2011
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KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP)--Shiite and Sunni lawmakers fought with fists in Kuwait's parliament Wednesday during a heated debate over inmates in the U.S. Guantanamo detention center, amid rising sectarian tension in the Gulf state.
Parliament was holding a debate over two Kuwaiti detainees in the U.S. prison camp in Cuba that Washington has refused to release when Shiite lawmaker Hussein al-Kallaf provoked some Sunni fellow lawmakers by dismissing the prisoners as "al Qaeda" militants.
Chaos erupted when Jamaan al-Harbash of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood told Kallaf the debate wasn't called to discuss al Qaeda but Guantanamo prisoners.
Two Shiite and four Sunni lawmakers were involved in the fight prompting acting speaker Abdullah al-Rumi to adjourn the session.
Later, parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi adjourned sessions until May 31 and ordered parliament's bureau to investigate.
Independent lawmaker Rudhan al-Rudhan called on the oil-rich emirate's ruler to use his constitutional powers to suspend parliament sessions for one month.
Shiite lawmaker Adnan al-Mutawa, who received a cut under the eye, accused Sunni Islamist lawmakers of not believing in democracy, saying attacking opponent lawmakers physically "is a form of terrorism."
The debate was attended by a delegation of U.S. lawyers defending the inmates.
During the debate, Islamist lawmakers called on the government to press the U.S. to free the two Kuwaiti inmates or complain to the International Criminal Court.
The fight came amid of heightened sectarian tension between the minority Shiite community and the Sunni majority at the background of local and regional issues.
Tensions soared when Shiites and Sunnis clashed over dispatching Gulf troops to Bahrain to crush Shiite-led protests and also after the uncovering of a spy ring allegedly working for the Revolutionary Guards in Shiite Iran.
In the past few weeks, police arrested several Shiite teenagers for writing derogatory statements against second Muslim Califate Omar and Prophet Mohammed's wife Aisha, both highly revered by Sunnis but not by Shiites.
Shiites say they form around 30% of the 1.1 million native Kuwaitis, amid a lack of official count. They have nine lawmakers in the 50-seat parliament and two ministers in the 16-member cabinet.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
18-05-11 1056GMT
