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| Iraq |
| Sistani calls halt to anti-coalition protests |
| 2004-01-23 |
| Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric Friday called a halt to mass protests against US plans for handing over power, offering much-needed breathing room to the coalition as it counted the cost of a new wave of rebel attacks on Iraqi civilians. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued the decree to give time to a UN study on the viability of free elections, a week after threatening to launch a civil unrest campaign unless polls were held before the end of June - when the coalition wants to install a new government. Threatened to cause trouble, everyone ran to stroke his ego by saying they’d look into it and report to him, he says Ok, I’ll stop the protests while you do. Sounds like a politician we can reach a deal with. Tens of thousands of Shiites have taken to the streets over the past week to back Sistani’s demands, which in turn prompted Washington to seek UN support for its plan which envisions elections only in late 2005. Following a meeting Monday with US overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer and members of the Iraqi Governing Council, UN chief Kofi Annan said he would consider sending a mission to study whether elections could be held sooner than scheduled. Kofi sez he’ll decide next week. It is vital "to wait until the United States and the UN clarify their positions on the election procedure to choose the nature of the next Iraqi government," Sistani spokesman Sheikh Abdel Mahdi al-Karbalai said in a sermon at Karbala. That could take awhile, which is good. While the potential UN mission would meet one of Sistani’s key demands, it stirred the wrath of firebrand radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, who branded the world body "dishonest" and subservient to America. Haven’t heard from Sadr in a while, pity he’s still breathing. "I refuse the participation of the United Nations in supervising elections, because it is not honest and it follows America," Sadr told worshippers at the Kufa pilgrimage shrine near the central holy city of Najaf. Well, you’re half right. Sadr, who appeals mainly to the young and disenfranchised, also mobilised thousands of supporters earlier this week, fuelling expectations that Shiites will grab the helm in Iraq, with or without elections, leaving the Kurdish and Sunni Muslim minorities marginalised. Sadr needs to have a close encounter with a blunt object. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition was facing an alarming shift in the nine-month insurgency that has blighted its presence in Iraq, with rebels now openly directing their fire at civilians and police. Shift? What shift? Five Christian laundry women died after assailants raked their minibus with gunfire Wednesday as they were headed to work at a US base near Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad. The fifth woman died Friday after succumbing to her injuries, said their employer, the German-based contractor, Ecolog, a subsidiary of US firm Kellog, Brown and Root. Christian laundry women? Gee, you don’t suppose that might have anything to do with why they were targeted, do you? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 Sistani and Sharpton, Partners at Law. |
| Posted by: john 2004-1-23 1:45:30 PM |
| #3 interesting development. |
| Posted by: B 2004-1-23 1:34:19 PM |
| #2 "I refuse the participation of the United Nations in supervising elections, because it is not honest and it follows America," Sadr told worshippers at the Kufa pilgrimage shrine near the central holy city of Najaf. Yeah, I guess that's why it took so damn long for the U.S. to finally go in take care of the Saddam problem. That's the UN "following" America, all right. What an asshat. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-23 12:40:55 PM |
| #1 "it stirred the wrath of firebrand radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, who branded the world body "dishonest" and subservient to America" The UN is not my idea of subservient. Must be a cultural thing. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-1-23 12:19:56 PM |