- (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Shia Muslims demonstrated
in Baghdad today to demand prompt elections, the protest coming hours before
US and Iraqi officials prepared to seek UN approval for their plans to
transfer power in Iraq.
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- A delegation headed by the US chief administrator in
Iraq, Paul Bremer, is in New York for a meeting later today with the UN
secretary general, Kofi Annan, hoping to persuade the world body to play
a greater role in the transition of power in Baghdad.
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- But Mr Annan has been reluctant to embrace further UN
involvement in Iraq until he is convinced that the country is safe. In
August last year, a suicide truck bomber targeted the UN's Baghdad operation,
killing 20 people including the UN special representative in Iraq, Sergio
Vieira de Mello.
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- A similar bombing on Sunday at the entrance to the headquarters
of the US occupation authority, which killed 24 people and injured about
120, underscored the dangers and appeared timed to cause maximum disruption
to today's talks in New York.
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- Today's demonstration saw a huge crowd of Shia Muslims,
estimated by reporters at up to 100,000 strong, march about three miles
to the University of al-Mustansariyah, where a representative of their
spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, delivered a speech directed
at the parties to the meeting at the UN headquarters.
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- Ayatollah Sistani, the country's most influential Shia
leader, has rejected a US formula to transfer power via a provisional legislature
selected by 18 regional caucuses. He insists instead upon full-blown national
elections.
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- Under Washington's plan, a transitional government would
be appointed to take over from the US-led coalition on July 1, with full
elections not taking place before 2005.
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- "The sons of the Iraqi people demand a political
system based on direct elections and a constitution that realises justice
and equality for everyone," Ayatollah Sistani's representative, Hashem
al-Awad, told the crowd. "Anything other than that will prompt people
to have their own say."
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- The crowd responded by chanting: "Yes, yes to elections.
No, no to occupation."
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- "What our religious leadership is doing today is
at the heart of its mandate," cleric Faras al-Tatrasani, 36, said.
"We are demanding democracy. And that's what America came to give
us."
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- Many marchers linked hands, while others carried portraits
of Ayatollah Sistani and other Shia leaders and waved banners saying "real
democracy means real elections".
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- There was little US military presence on the ground,
but two US military helicopters hovered low over the demonstrators and
scores of armed Iraqi police stood by.
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- About 30,000 Shias held a similar demonstration last
Thursday in the southern city of Basra. Shia Muslims are thought to account
for up to 60% of Iraq's 25 million people, but they were suppressed by
Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government and fear the provisional legislature
could leave them out in the political cold again.
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- The growing clamour for political rights by the majority
Shias is increasing pressure on the US-led coalition administration and
its Iraqi allies as they try to rein in guerrilla violence blamed on Sunni
minority insurgents loyal to Saddam.
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- US officials and members of the Iraqi governing council
officials insist that it would be impossible to hold free and fair elections
before next year, given the precarious security situation.
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- They hope Mr Annan, who withdrew all UN staff from Iraq
after last August's bombing, will share their view that it is still too
early and too dangerous to attempt to conduct elections.
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- Sunday's attack on the US administration's headquarters
targeted one of the most heavily protected areas in Baghdad. US soldiers
guarding the gate usually stand about 20 metres from the road behind coils
of barbed wire and concrete barriers.
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- Witnesses said that the driver of what the US military
described as a white Toyota pick-up truck tried to bypass a line of Iraqi
workers and a group of US military vehicles at about 8am (0500 GMT), to
get as close as possible to the entrance US troops refer to as "assassins'
gate".
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- The force of the blast, from a bomb estimated to contain
450 kilos (1,000 pounds) of explosives, rattled windows more than a mile
away. Most victims were Iraqis, including some waiting in their cars for
stringent security checks before going to work or attending to other business
inside the coalition compound, which was previously Saddam's republican
palace.
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- Mohammed Jabbar, who works at the planning ministry,
said the blast "lifted us into the air" and people "fell
on top of one another". Several cars caught fire, and the twisted
remains of the truck were hurled hundreds of metres away.
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- Three US civilians and three American soldiers were among
the wounded, a military spokesman said.
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- "Once again, it is innocent Iraqis who have been
murdered by these terrorists in a senseless act of violence," Mr Bremer
said in a statement. "Our determination to work for a stable and democratic
future for this country is undiminished."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1126468,00.html
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