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.