Low level of Sunni participation tarnishes success of large poll turnout
By Robert Fisk http://207.44.245.159/article7919.htm 01/31/05 "The Star" -- Baghdad - Even as the explosions thundered over Baghdad, they came in their hundreds, and then in their thousands. Entire families, crippled old men supported by their sons, children beside them, babies in the arms of their mothers. The Shi'ite Muslims of Baghdad yesterday walked quietly to polling stations, to the Martyr Mohamed Bakr Hakim School in Jadriya, without talking, through the car-less streets, the air pressure changing around them as mortars rained down on the US and British embassy compounds and the first of the day's suicide bombers immolated himself and his victims, most of them Shi'ites, 3km away. The Kurds voted, in their tens of thousands, but the Sunnis - 20% of Iraq's population, whose insurgency was the principal reason for this election - boycotted or were intimidated from the pollingstations. The turnout figure, estimated at perhaps 72% of Iraq's 15-million registered voters, represented both victory and tragedy. For while the Shi'ites voted in their millions with immense courage, the Sunni voice remained silent, casting into semi-illegitimacy the National Assembly whose existence is supposed to provide the US with a political excuse to extricate itself from its little Vietnam in the Middle East. And yes, there was the violence we all expected. There were nine suicide bombers in Baghdad - the largest number ever to have killed themselves on a single day anywhere in the Middle East. An American mercenary and a US soldier were among the first to die when mortars exploded across the American-appointed administration buildings in central Baghdad. Then more than 20 voters were cut down. Before dusk came news that a Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft had crashed en route to the largely insurgent-held city of Balad. Inall, almost 50 people were killed across Iraq. But it was the sight of those thousands of Shi'ites, the women mostly in black hejab covering, the men in leather jackets or long robes, the children toddling beside them, that took the breath away. If Osama bin Laden had called these elections an apostasy, these people, who represent 60% of Iraq, did not heed his threats. They came to claim their rightful power in the land - that is why Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the grand marja of the Shi'ites of Iraq, told them to vote - and woe betide the Americans and British if they do not get it. For if this election produces a parliamentary coalition which splits the Shi'ites and turns their largest party into the opposition, then the Sunni insurgency will become a national uprising. "I came here," said a young man in the Jadriya polling station, "because our grand marja told us that voting today was more important than prayer and fasting." An older man beamedwith delight. "My name is Abdul-Rudha Abu Mohamed and I am so happy today," he said. "They must elect a president from us and we must be one with all Iraqis - and we must have justice." Even the local election agent was close to tears. Taleb Ibrahim admitted that he had participated in Saddam Hussein's one-man elections but that this day marked the moment when the Shi'ites of Iraq, after refusing to take revenge on their Ba'athist oppressors, would show their magnanimity. Even if the Sunnis were boycotting the poll, he said, "there is an old saying that if the father becomes angry, we will have no problems with his sons. We will make sure that these sons - the Sunnis - have equal rights with us." Across Baghdad, it was the same story; entire families moved as one towards the polling stations while the air rang with explosions. Just after voting started, there were 30 detonations in the city in less than two minutes - but still they came as if on a familyday out. Bombs are now heartbeats in Iraq, and we could hear the thump of explosions even above the low-flying American Apache choppers. Yet along the empty roads, neighbours stopped to talk and show each other the indelible ink on their index fingers that officials used to ensure there were no double votes. It was both the safest and the most dangerous of days. At one polling station, I asked the first of the young Iraqi soldiers who were to check us - all wore black woollen face masks so that they could not be identified - if he was frightened. "It doesn't matter," he said. "I am ready to die for this day. We have got to vote." Seven hours later I talked to him again and he, too, had the indelible ink on his finger. "It's like you can change your future or your faith," he said. "We only had military coups and revolutions before. We voted 'yes' or 'yes'. Now we vote for ourselves." It was easy to imbibe the falseoptimism of the Western television networks and the nonsense about Iraq's "historic" day - for it will only have been historic if it changes this country, and many fear that it will not. No one I met yesterday believes the insurgency will end - many thought it would grow more ferocious - and the Shi'ites in the polling stations said with one voice that they were also voting to rid Iraq of the Americans, not to legitimise their presence. This is a message that the Americans and British will ignore at their peril. On Baghdad's streets yesterday, the Americans deployed thousands of troops, most of them trying to show some respect for the people, watching them rather than threatening them with their rifles, which is how they usually behave in the dangerous capital. A certain Captain Buchanan from Arkansas even ventured a political thought. "It's a pity the Sunnis aren't voting - it's their loss." But of course it is also Iraq's loss and theShi'ites' loss too - and possibly America's loss. For without that vital minority component, who will believe in the new parliament or the constitution it is supposed to produce or the next government it is supposed to create? I asked a Sunni Muslim security guard what he thought would be the future of his country. He had not voted - in many Sunni cities only a third of the polling stations opened - but he had thought a lot about this question. "You cannot give us 'democracy' just like this. This is one of your Western, foreign dreams," he said. "Before, we had Saddam and he was a cruel man and he treated us cruelly. But what will happen after this election is that you will give us lots of little Saddams." (c)2005 The Star & Independent Online See also an interview with Robert Fisk by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1516244 _______________________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. To subscribe: http://lists.portside.org/mailman/listinfo/portside *** Toronto Sun January 30, 2005 Real freedom still far off By Eric Margolis -- Contributing Foreign Editor Will today's elections for 7,785 unknown candidates in violence-racked Iraq mark the dawn of genuine Mideast democracy, as U.S. President George W. Bush claims, or be another step deeper into the bloody quagmire in Mesopotamia? First, no election held under a foreign military occupation resulting from an unjustified war is legal under international law. During the Cold War, elections staged by the Soviets after invading Afghanistan, Hungary and Czechoslovakia were rightly denounced by the U.S. as "frauds" and the leaders elected as "stooges." Second, Shiites, excluded from political power since Britain created Iraq in 1921, will win since they represent 60% of the population. Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a fatwa, or religious decree, ordering the faithful to vote for the Shiites' coalitions. Sistani made what some see as a pact with the devil. He is abetting at least temporary U.S. occupation and exploitation of oil-rich Iraq in exchange for Washington handing power to his fellow "good" Shiites -- not to be confused with Iran's "bad" Shiites, who are facing U.S.-Israeli attack. "Good" Shiites don't sport turbans; they sideline clerics and avoid angry Islamic mutterings. Iraq's pro-U.S. Kurds will elect their own coalitions determined to keep their oil revenues and create a state independent in all but name. Sunnis have lost all the power and perks they previously enjoyed, they lead resistance against U.S. occupation. They will be the odd men out, at the mercy of the hated Shiites, a sect long persecuted by mainstream Sunni Muslims as dangerous heretics and fanatics. Third, the U.S.-"guided" regime emerging from the vote will be one of form without much substance, unless a new Shiite regime revolts and asserts its independence. For now, Iraq's real government will continue to be the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the world's largest, and 150,000 U.S. occupation troops. Every important Iraqi ministry is run by U.S. "advisers" who call the shots and allocate all spending. Power comes from guns and money. The U.S. controls and pays Iraq's low-morale police and native troops who, in a nation with 70% unemployment, mostly serve to feed families. Vote to end misery Iraq's entire budget comes from sporadic oil exports and U.S.-dispensed aid (the latest bill for Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $240 billion US) Many Iraqis will vote for anyone promising to end violence and social misery. But just as many nationalists and Islamists, excluded from the election process, are voting their own way -- with bullets and bombs. Washington calls them "terrorists," but the UN Charter enshrines people's right to resist foreign occupation. A "Muslim-lite" turbanless Shiite regime allied to Washington will immediately have to face Kurdish secessionists and Sunni insurgents. Younger, more nationalistic Shiites with connections to Tehran will try to oust the "quietist" collaborationist Sistani faction once Shiites are firmly in power. More, rather than less, violence is likely, with Sistani a prime bomb target. Iraq, like Humpty Dumpty, is broken and may never be put together. That's fine with the Bush administration's pro-Israel hawks who engineered this war. A shattered Iraq will never challenge Israel's nuclear monopoly. But not fine for the U.S. A senior commander just warned that 130,000 U.S. troops must stay in Iraq until at least 2007, maybe much longer. Iraqization, like Vietnamization, has proved a chimera. So, too, plans to plunder Iraq's oil. Meanwhile Pentagon brass are livid over neo-con plans to launch a new war against Israel's principal enemy, Iran. This "guided" election is Bush's best last chance to declare a titanic victory, then bring all his troops home to a big ticker-tape parade before Iraq dissolves into bloody chaos or is taken over by Iran. Otherwise, the U.S. will be stuck forever to its Iraqi tar baby, ruing the day it overthrew old ally, Saddam. A truly independent regime will eventually emerge in Baghdad when the U.S. finally runs low on money, men and crusading will power. We'll know for sure real freedom has dawned in Iraq when Baghdad orders U.S. troops out, raises oil prices, rebuilds its armed forces, and renews support for the Palestinian cause. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2005/01/30/91 4831.html *** 'Elections' dismissed as illegitimate Anti-War movement calls for massive protests to end war in Iraq on March 19-20 Porto Alegre, Brazil (January 30) -- On the day of the elections in Iraq, anti-war movements from around the world today called for a Global Day of Action against the war in Iraq this coming March 19-20. The call was the resolution of an Anti-War Assembly held as part of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of anti-globalization and anti-war activists that this year drew over 100,000 participants. "There have been ups and downs since then but this assembly marks the revival of the anti-war movement," said Walden Bello, executive director of Focus on the Global South and one of the main organizers of the assembly. The assembly was attended by around 300 anti-war campaigners from over 33 countries, including Iraq. Most of the participants were from groups behind the massive worldwide demonstrations against the war on Iraq last February 15, 2003. "We are determined to say that 2005 will be the year that we will end the occupation," said Medea Benjamin of the United for Peace and Justice, the largest anti-war coalition in the United States with over 1,000 member organizations. "World public opinion is in our favor," pointed out Chris Nineham of the UK's Stop the War Coalition, the group that organized the massive one-million strong march in London. "There is more opposition to the war now than even on February 15." As of last count, demonstrations are being planned in 29 countries - including in in Iraq. More are expected to follow as the call is circulated among anti-war networks in the coming weeks. The anti-war activists also downplayed the impact of the elections in Iraq. "These stage-managed elections are illegitimate to the core," pointed out Bello. "The world will not fall for this ploy." One participant who came all the way from Baghdad, Sheik Jawad Khalisi, a leader of a broad coalition of anti-occupation Iraqi political groups -- including both Sunnis and Shiites, Islamic and secular ones -- also dismissed the elections. Khalisi is considered one of the most influential leaders in Iraq today. A Shiite religious leaders from Khadamiya district in Baghdad, he is the son of one of the Iraqi heroes who led the resistance against the British occupation in the 1920s. "George Bush had already determined the results of these elections even before the day of the voting," Khalisi said. "These elections are not elections for the Iraqi people, but for George Bush." Khalisi claimed that - based on the information they have in Baghdad - a very significant percentage of Iraqis decided to boycott the elections. He noted that in five provinces, including Mosul, Diyala, and Ramadi, more than 90% of eligible voters decided to boycott the elections. In seven other provinces, the boycott rate was around 70% Khalisi also pointed out that out of Iraq's 1,200,000 eligible voters, only 100,000 actually registered. Even less of them could have actually voted. Khalisi believes that the violence will not end even with the elections. "The violence will stop only when Iraq is liberated from the occupying powers," he said. "Violence will continue because the main instigators of the violence are the occupation forces," Bello added. He pointed out that of the 100,000 Iraqis that have been killed in the war, most of them died at the hands of the coalition forces. "The more resistance they face, the more brutal they will get," Bello said. Rad-Green mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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