UN group tries to sort out dissent over power transfer

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric yesterday maintained his demand for national elections, according to a UN envoy trying to work out differences over US plans to transfer power to Iraqis this summer.

The handover has been further threatened by accelerated attacks against American forces and those who co-operate with them, including two suicide bombings against Iraqi targets on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed up to 100 people. Hours after the latest suicide attack, two American soldiers were killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.Amid the violence, Iraq’s US administrators have been looking for a way to soothe opposition to their plans for creating a new provisional government in time for the June 30 target date.Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has shaken those plans with his insistence that national elections be held to create a new legislature.He has criticised the US plan to delay a ballot and instead let regional “caucuses” pick the legislatures as undemocratic.The call for elections prompted demonstrations by tens of thousands of his supporters last month – forcing Washington to request the UN mission in hopes of assuaging the cleric.The 75-year-old cleric – who has refused to meet with US officials, including the top American administrator, L Paul Bremer – also demands that an elected legislature approve a temporary constitution still being drawn up, rather than the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council.The UN team, led by envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, has been examining whether elections are feasible ahead of the June 30 deadline.Shi’ites, thought to make up about 60 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people, have long been ruled over by Iraq’s Sunnis, who are concentrated mostly in Baghdad and central Iraq, and were harshly suppressed under Saddam Hussein.They are now eager to run the country and would likely dominate elections, raising Sunni concerns.Yesterday, two mortar shells exploded near a police station and a hotel housing journalists in the southern town of Samawah, where Japanese troops have deployed, but no injuries were reported.- Nampa-APHours after the latest suicide attack, two American soldiers were killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the US military said yesterday. Amid the violence, Iraq’s US administrators have been looking for a way to soothe opposition to their plans for creating a new provisional government in time for the June 30 target date. Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has shaken those plans with his insistence that national elections be held to create a new legislature. He has criticised the US plan to delay a ballot and instead let regional “caucuses” pick the legislatures as undemocratic. The call for elections prompted demonstrations by tens of thousands of his supporters last month – forcing Washington to request the UN mission in hopes of assuaging the cleric. The 75-year-old cleric – who has refused to meet with US officials, including the top American administrator, L Paul Bremer – also demands that an elected legislature approve a temporary constitution still being drawn up, rather than the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council. The UN team, led by envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, has been examining whether elections are feasible ahead of the June 30 deadline. Shi’ites, thought to make up about 60 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people, have long been ruled over by Iraq’s Sunnis, who are concentrated mostly in Baghdad and central Iraq, and were harshly suppressed under Saddam Hussein. They are now eager to run the country and would likely dominate elections, raising Sunni concerns. Yesterday, two mortar shells exploded near a police station and a hotel housing journalists in the southern town of Samawah, where Japanese troops have deployed, but no injuries were reported. – Nampa-AP