MP accuses Sport Ministry of distorting Iraqi Olympic Committee's image

A parliamentarian from the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) accused the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport and its minister of distorting the image of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, which he said led to a government decision ordering its disbandment.

"Some employees in the ministry, as well as Minister Jasem Muhammad Jaafar, have given a wrong picture of the Olympic committee, which led the cabinet to suspend its work," Hassan Othman, who is also a vice president of the Youth and Sport Committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).

Describing the suspension as "bad," Othman called on the government to go back on its decision and allow the Olympic committee to perform its tasks.

"The whole matter should have been referred to the sport committee and the parliament because it concerns the future of Iraqi sport," he added.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi cabinet decided to suspend the executive office of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and all its federations, and to form a temporary committee headed by the minister of youth and sports with a full mandate to manage the committee's affairs.

"The temporary committee will be given all competences for three months to hold the elections and to prepare a new law for the Olympic Committee," Ali al-Dabagh, an official spokesman for the Iraqi government, said in a statement received by VOI.

The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, has threatened to halt all activities of Iraqi football, including the 2010 world cup qualifications, in light of the decision.

VOI has made every effort to contact the ministry for more information, but to no avail.

The Kurdistan Coalition, the second largest bloc, holds 55 seats in the 275-member parliament.

The suspended executive office of the Iraqi Olympic Committee was elected on January 29, 2004 in Dokan resort, Sulaimaniya province, with Ahmed Abdul Ghafoor al-Samarraie as its chairman. Bashar Musatafa was elected as a proxy chairman of the Olympic committee in early August 2006 after its chairman, secretary general and several members were kidnapped during a public conference held in Baghdad on July 15 of the same year.

Established in 1948, the Iraqi Olympic Committee includes 23 Olympic Sport federations and 18 non-Olympic sport federations.