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Iraqis lean toward direct
elections
NEW YORK - United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says there is a
"consensus emerging" among Iraqis that direct national
elections are the best way to establish a transitional
government.
Annan has issued a statement that
there is also wide agreement that elections must be
carefully prepared, and that they must be organized in
proper conditions to reflect best the wishes of the
Iraqi electorate.
The statement followed
comments in Iraq on Thursday by Annan's envoy, Lakhdar
Brahimi, that the UN supports Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in his demand for
elections. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the
timing of such polls remains a major unresolved issue.
Brahimi will return to UN headquarters next week to
present recommendations to Annan.
Washington
favors an approach involving regional caucuses selecting
delegates and has set a deadline of June 30 to hand over
sovereignty, with direct elections only in 2005.
A UN team led by Brahimi is touring Iraq to
assess the feasibility of early direct elections.
"Al-Sistani is insistent 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," Brahimi said after
two hours of talks with al-Sistani.
Brahimi, an
Algerian, met the media-shy cleric in the holy city of
Najaf the day after a suicide bomb in Baghdad killed 47
people at an army recruitment center. A similar attack
on Tuesday killed 53 people lining up for jobs at a
police station.
Violence such as this and
escalating attacks against US-led multinational military
forces are stymieing UN efforts to return to the
war-devastated country. The world body pulled its
international workers out of the occupied nation after a
suicide bombing against its offices there in August
killed 22 employees, leaving only local staff providing
humanitarian assistance. Since then, Annan has resisted
calls to return until safety can be assured.
"I
have always maintained that security was important for
my staff to return," Annan told reporters. "Our
activities are today constrained by the security
environment. We need to have a secure environment to be
able to go back, and I'm not sure we have it yet," he
added.
Annan's comments came less than 12 hours
after a brazen insurgent attack on a US military convoy
that included the US military commander in the Middle
East, General John Abizaid, and the local US commander,
General Charles Swannack.
Both men were
unharmed, but the attack visibly shook the US military
establishment in Iraq. The military officials were
visiting an Iraqi civil defense corps compound in
Falluja, west of Baghdad. "What happened today is not
encouraging," Annan said. "Obviously we're going to
remain alert, we're going to keep our eyes open and
analyze the situation vis-a-vis security before we take
any decision," he added.
Annan has come under
increasing US pressure not only to mediate the ongoing
dispute between the US and al-Sistani over elections,
but also to resume full-scale humanitarian activities
suspended after August's bombing of the UN compound in
Baghdad. Among those killed was the UN special
representative in Iraq, undersecretary general Sergio
Vieira de Mello. A second suicide bombing on the UN
office killed an Iraqi security guard and wounded 19
others.
"The blue flag of the United Nations
does not provide staffers protection anymore," said Guy
Candusso, vice president of the UN Staff Union. "We
don't want the lives of our staff put at risk in the
current environment," he said.
Salim Lone, a
former spokesman for Vieira de Mello in Baghdad, has
continued to argue strongly against a return to Iraq
"until a politically driven process under United Nations
or genuinely international auspices is being pursued. I
am fully supportive of Mr Annan's opposition to a return
of UN staff to Iraq at this time," he said.
Lone, who survived the August bombing, said
Annan has taken a considerable risk in sending the UN
electoral mission to Iraq, "where the [US-led] Coalition
Provisional Authority [CPA] seems powerless to prevent
devastating insurgent attacks on those associating with
the Americans".
US military forces have even
failed to prevent attacks on their own senior officials,
including visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz and CPA head L Paul Bremer, in two rocket
attacks in December.
(Inter Press Service, with
additional reporting by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
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