Posted on 28-1-2004
UN
ready to send elections team to Iraq
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, today announced that
a team will be sent to Iraq to determine the feasibility of
holding elections before the summer, provided that security
can be guaranteed.
Illustrating the acuteness of the security problems in Iraq,
shortly after Mr Annan made his statement in Paris, two bombs
exploded on a roadside next to a passing US military convoy
in Khaldiyah, a tense region around 50 miles west of Baghdad.
Three American soldiers and two Iraqis were killed. The second
bomb went off as reinforcements arrived following the first
blast and military vehicles were left ablaze.
Mr Annan, speaking before the attack, said: "Once I'm
satisfied that the CPA [the US-led authority in Iraq] will provide
adequate security arrangements, I will send a mission to Iraq
in response to the requests that I received.
"The mission will ascertain the views of a broad spectrum
of Iraqi society in the search for alternatives that might be
developed to move forward to the formation of a provisional
government," he added.
The US-led administration in Iraq, along with the country's
governing council, asked Mr Annan to consider sending a team
to examine the possibility of holding elections before the return
of Iraqi sovereignty on June 30.
The request followed pressure from Iraq's leading Shia cleric,
the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. He has challenged
the US plan for transferring power this year, which does not
envisage holding full national elections until 2005.
Instead, the ayatollah and his supporters have called for elections
prior to the June 30 handover, meaning that power would be transferred
to an elected, rather than appointed, body.
Early elections would favour Shia Muslims, who account for
60% of Iraq's 25 million people. They were often brutally suppressed
under Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime, and are anxious not to
be sidelined again when political power returns to Iraqis.
Ayatollah Sistani has mobilised tens of thousands of followers
in street demonstrations in recent weeks to back his call for
early elections.
US officials oppose his plan because of the short time left
to organise them and the violent atmosphere in the country,
which they say favours extremists.
However, they acknowledge the ayatollah's widespread influence,
and it was his willingness to accept a UN decision on early
elections that prompted the Bush administration to approach
the world body.
Last Friday, UN officials said that a two-person team had arrived
in Baghdad for talks on various security matters. It was the
first visit from foreign UN staff since Mr Annan withdrew personnel
in October.
The withdrawal was prompted by a suicide truck bomb attack
on the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August. The bombing killed
22 people, including the head of mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello,
and the UN has since employed Iraqi staff.
A UN spokesman stressed that a separate field security assessment
would be needed should Mr Annan decide to send in an electoral
team.
The UN secretary general is in Paris for the opening of the
Global Compact conference, an initiative he launched in 1999
to encourage better corporate practices on human rights, labour
and environmental issues.
He is due to meet the French president, Jacques Chirac, later
today.
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