Shi'ite Leader Says Iraqi Govt. Must Focus on Polls
By Michael Georgy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Any Iraqi government that takes over sovereignty from occupying forces before elections are held must have strictly limited powers and focus on holding elections as soon as possible, a Shi'ite politician said Tuesday.
Iraqi Shi'ites have led demands that any sovereign Iraqi government should be directly elected. But a report by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday said it would take at least eight months to organize polls -- much later than the planned handover of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, one of the leading Shi'ite members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told Reuters on Tuesday that an unelected caretaker government would be acceptable while preparations were made for elections.
"The provisional government which takes authority on July 1 is going to have limited and specific authority," he said.
"This is a caretaker government, this is not a cabinet or a government which can do anything and everything. It's a caretaker government with limited and specific authority, and the main task of that government is to organize elections."
Washington, keen to return sovereignty to Iraqis before the U.S. presidential election in November, said last year that an interim Iraqi government would be handed power on June 30 and full elections would follow by the end of 2005.
But Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded elections sooner, forcing the U.S.-led administration in Iraq to rethink its plans.
A United Nations team led by Lakhdar Brahimi visited Iraq this month to gauge the feasibility of elections, and concluded they could not be held until late 2004 or early 2005.
"After more than three decades of despotic rule, without the basic elements of rule of law, a ruined economy, a devastated country, the collapse of state institutions, low political will for reconciliation, and distrust among some Iraqis, conditions in Iraq are daunting," the U.N. report said.
U.N. MAY SEND ANOTHER TEAM
The mechanism for choosing an interim Iraqi government has yet to be agreed. U.N. officials say Brahimi may visit Iraq again next month to help mediate an agreement.
Annan said in Tokyo Tuesday that although the United Nations was committed to helping Iraq, he would not reestablish a permanent presence of international U.N. staff in the country until security conditions improved.
The U.N. pulled out international staff last year after two suicide bomb attacks on its Baghdad headquarters. The first attack, on August 19, killed 22 people including head of mission Sergio Vieira de Mello.
"For the U.N. staff to go back in larger numbers and establish themselves, which we are prepared to do, the security condition must improve," Annan told a news conference. "Otherwise I risk repeating the experience of 19 August."
Before the handover of power, several thorny issues have to be settled -- not just the procedure for picking a transitional government, but also controversial Kurdish demands for considerable autonomy in northern provinces they wrested from Saddam Hussein's rule after the 1991 Gulf War.
Saturday is the deadline for the Governing Council to agree a transitional constitution to cover the handover of power, but some Council members have said disputes over the Kurdish demands meant agreement would not be possible in time.
But Paul Bremer, Iraq's U.S. governor, said the February 28 deadline would be met. Senior officials in the U.S.-led occupation authority have suggested the likeliest compromise may be language that embraces the concept of federalism while postponing any decision on its more controversial aspects.
Besides struggling to work out an acceptable political way forward for Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition is also battling a campaign of guerrilla attacks against occupying troops and Iraqis cooperating with them.
In the northern city of Mosul, three Iraqis working with the U.S. military were killed and two wounded Monday evening when guerrillas opened fire on their car, hospital officials said.
Earlier Monday, a car bomb attack on a police station in Kirkuk killed at least 13 policemen. February has been the bloodiest month in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with scores of Iraqis killed in a series of suicide attacks.
reuters.com
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Hmmm...let me see now. While Bremer makes with the "Happy Talk", the reality is quite different. The a transitional constitution won't be ready on Saturday, and the outstanding differences, rather than being solved, will be "papered over" with language "postponing any decision on its more controversial aspects". So if there is a problem with implementing the Bush Agenda timetable, ignore the problem, and march onward. Yeah, that approach will increase the chances for success.
"The provisional government which takes authority on July 1 is going to have limited and specific authority," he said.
Now there's a pregnant sentence. Until told otherwise, I interpret that to mean the interim "provisional government" cannot enter into any binding long term agreements - like oil contracts or SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and bases agreements. If my interpretation is correct, Sistani just said, "Check". It's not checkmate yet, but getting closer.
JMO
lurqer |
