All Iraq Political Prisoners Are Due to Be Freed : Mideast: Hussein proclaims an amnesty, seen aimed at ending U.N. sanctions.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein pardoned all political prisoners Sunday in a surprise gesture apparently aimed at quieting criticism of his human rights record and winning an end to crippling U.N. sanctions.

The amnesty--the second ordered by Hussein in eight days--also covered suspected government opponents not yet convicted or even officially charged, even if they are in hiding or in exile.

The moves--along with the unusual flexibility shown by Iraq recently in dealing with international weapons inspectors--indicate that Hussein may be changing tactics in his push to get the U.N. Security Council to lift the oil embargo and other sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Years of defiance and attempts to conceal information have kept the sanctions in place--leading to severe shortages of food, medicine and other necessities for Iraq’s 20 million people.

The sanctions come up for review again in September.

Sunday’s decree, endorsed by the country’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council, which Hussein chairs, was reported by the official Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Cyprus.

It covered all people convicted or suspected of political offenses, provided they had not been found guilty of other serious crimes, namely murder, rape, embezzlement of public funds or espionage.

The news agency did not say how soon the political prisoners would be freed, or how many were covered. Thousands were expected to benefit.

Those in hiding in Iraq had one month from Sunday to “report to the concerned authority to become eligible for the pardon,” it said. Those abroad were given two months to return home.

However, it is not clear how many dissidents would trust the pardon and turn themselves over to Hussein’s unpredictable regime, which has executed hundreds of political opponents in recent years.

The decree followed a July 22 amnesty that spared mainly army deserters awaiting the severing of their ears or other body parts under Hussein’s Draconian laws.

That amnesty also included nonpolitical convicts who had served part of their sentences, and commuted many death sentences to life in prison. But murderers, rapists and drug traffickers were excluded.