UN considers elections in Irak

[Other News - Roberto Savio / IPS <soros@topica.email-publisher.com>]

U.N. Aide Backs Cleric on Elections; Offers No Timetable
    By Edward Wong
    The New York Times

     BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb — An envoy for the United Nations said he
supported a powerful Shiite cleric's call for elections to install a new
sovereign government after having met with the cleric this morning.

     But the envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, did not say whether he thought direct
elections could be held by June 30, when the Bush administration wants to
put a transitional national assembly in place to appoint the new government.

     Later, at the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan said there
was "wide agreement" that elections must be carefully prepared and
organized, seeming to dispel the notion that any direct elections would be
rushed. Mr. Annan's statement was issued in an effort to clear up any
earlier confusion about Mr. Brahimi's statements.

     Mr. Brahimi is leading a team from the United Nations that arrived
this week to assess the possibility of holding quick direct elections. The
cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, insists on holding elections to
appoint members of the national assembly and opposes the Bush
administration's plan to have a caucus-style selection process.

     Frustrated by the cleric's demands, the White House asked Mr. Brahimi
and the United Nations last month to intervene, since Ayatollah Sistani
said he would seriously weigh the opinion of the United Nations.

     After meeting with the cleric in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 90
miles south of Baghdad, Mr. Brahimi told a group of reporters that
Ayatollah Sistani "insists on holding the elections and we are with him on
this 100 percent because elections are the best means to enable any people
to set up a state that serves their interest."

     Mr. Brahimi added that "we also agree with his excellency that the
elections must be well-prepared and well-arranged and must be done under
the best possible circumstances to get the results that Ayatollah Sistani
wants and the people of Iraq and the U.N. want."

     Mr. Brahimi's statements make it increasingly apparent that the White
House will have great difficulty carrying out its original caucus-style
plan and persuading the Iraqi people of the plan's legitimacy.

     American officials have indicated they are willing to make adjustments
to the plan, but want to stick to a deadline of June 30 to hand over
sovereignty of the country. Direct elections are not possible before then
because proper voter rolls and electoral laws cannot be set up in time,
they say.

     Ayatollah Sistani has said he is willing to postpone direct elections
if the United Nations team tells him the process is impossible right now.
It is unclear what mechanism the United Nations might suggest for
appointing the national assembly.

     When asked by a reporter whether the United Nations was being
pressured by the White House to reach certain conclusions, Mr. Brahimi
said, "Our organization is a neutral organization and has no specific
agenda but to help the Iraqi people."

     Mr. Brahimi made his remarks after meeting with Ayatollah Sistani for
two hours in the cleric's austere home. The ayatollah lives in a narrow
alleyway a few blocks from the Shrine of Ali, one of the holiest pilgrimage
sites for Shiites. Witnesses said they saw Mr. Brahimi entering the
alleyway around 10 a.m.

     Various politicians have met with the United Nations team in recent
days to lobby for their points of view.

     Shiite Arab leaders generally support quick direct elections out of
respect for Ayatollah Sistani's opinion, and because they understand that
such elections will help put Shiite Arabs in power because that group makes
up at least 60 percent of the population.

     Kurds and Sunni Arabs are generally opposed to direct elections for
fear that a national assembly and a new government heavily dominated by
Shiite Arabs will not honor minority rights. Sunnis ruled the country for
centuries under the Ottoman and British empires and the dictatorship of
Saddam Hussein.

     One of the most vocal champions of elections has been the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shiite party whose
officials often visit Ayatollah Sistani.

     "It was a very successful meeting," Haitham al-Husseini, an aide to
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the party and an Iraqi Governing Council
member, said of the meeting between Mr. Brahimi and Ayatollah Sistani. He
said he had no further details of what took place.

     Dan Senor, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said
American administrators were still awaiting a report from the United
Nations. He added that administrators have begun replacing some members of
local councils in order to make the councils "more representative." The
councils would be involved in choosing delegates during the caucus-style
process.

     Though the Bush administration has yet to acknowledge that security
also poses a problem for elections, many experts — including American
generals here — say the country is too unstable to stage a fully
democratic process.

     This afternoon, in the volatile town of Falluja, insurgents fired
rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy carrying Gen. John Abizaid, commander
of American forces in the Middle East, and Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack,
commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. No one was hurt.

     The American military said two soldiers from the First Armored
Division were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad during a patrol
on Wednesday night.

     A mortar round exploded this morning near a Japanese base in the
southern town of Samawa, but no one was hurt. Japanese troops arrived in
Iraq on Sunday in the first deployment of such a force in a combat zone
since World War II.

     Those attacks come after two suicide car bombs exploded in Baghdad and
the nearby town of Iskandariya on Wednesday and Tuesday mornings, killing a
total of at least 102 Iraqis. Most of the victims were men applying for
jobs with the new Iraqi Army and police forces.

     Earlier this week, occupation officials issued details of an
intercepted letter supposedly written by a suspected Jordanian terrorist,
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

     In the letter, Mr. Zarqawi claimed to have directed about 25 suicide
bombings in Iraq and asked for the help of Al Qaeda in igniting a sectarian
war here. The American military said today that it was offering a reward of
$10 million for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Zarqawi.


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walls utter, media keeps silent”. Roberto Savio

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