Dated signature and seal of Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as appearing on a statement issued March 30, 2008.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'a cleric and ostensible leader of the religious trend known as the Sadrist Current, to which the Mahdi Army militia is nominally loyal, issued a nine-point statement on Sunday denouncing the recent armed clashes between militia fighters and uniformed forces in Basra and other Iraqi provinces. Below is the full-text translation of the statement, as obtained in the original Arabic by IraqSlogger.

Springing from a position of legitimate responsibility, and in order to preserve valuable Iraqi blood, and to preserve the Iraqi people in its territorial and popular unity, and to pave the way for (that people's) independence, and to protect it from the armies of oppression, and to extinguish the fire of strife that the Occupier and its followers seek to ignite among the brothers of the Iraqi people, we call upon the beloved Iraqi people to be at the fullest extent of responsibility and legitimate consciousness, in order to spare blood and to preserve the safety of Iraq, and its stability and independence.

We have decided the following:

1. Repudiation of the armed manifestations in Basra province and in all the provinces.
2. Stopping the arbitrary illegal raids and arrests.
3. The demand that the government apply the General Amnesty Law and release all detainees whose guilt has not been proven, and especially the detainees of the Sadrist Current.
4. We announce our innocence (non-involvement) from those who carry weapons and who target our brothers and the governmental and service agencies and the offices of (political) parties.
5. Cooperation with our brothers in the government in realizing security and in convicting the perpetrators of the crimes according to legal means.
6. We affirm that the Sadrist Current does not possess heavy weapons.
7. Working to return the displaced persons who fled because of the security events in their areas of residence.
8. We demand that the government adhere to human rights in all its security measures.
9. Working to achieve the reconstruction and service projects in all provinces.

Muqtada al-Sadr