By Edward Wong
New York Times
12 January 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 11 — The most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq said Sunday that members of an interim assembly must be chosen through direct elections, putting at risk White House plans to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis by July 1. His statement came despite continuing efforts to change the cleric's mind on the subject.
The cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued an edict in late June that urged Iraqis to press for general elections and that forced American officials to scrap their original plans for writing a constitution.
In November, he called again for direct elections, this time for an interim assembly, but said he would reconsider his decision if a United Nations delegation decided that such elections were not possible. In a statement issued Sunday, though, he essentially left no room for compromise by saying elections could be held "within the next months with an acceptable level of transparency and credibility."
He added that an interim constitution being drafted by the Iraqi Governing Council and any agreement for American-led forces to remain in the country must be approved only by directly elected representatives.
A senior member of the occupying authority said members of the Iraqi Governing Council, who have been negotiating with the ayatollah on the issue, would continue to do so, though efforts so far have been in vain.
Ayatollah Sistani is the most respected cleric here among Shiite Muslims, who make up 60 to 70 percent of Iraq's population but have never ruled Iraq in modern times. General elections would favor the Shiites, and experts have warned that ethnic and religious tensions would increase if elections were held quickly. Guarantees of rights for Iraq's other groups, including Sunni Arabs and Kurds, might also be jeopardized.
In another sign that Iraqis were asserting their power, the Governing Council issued new guidelines on Sunday for removing former members of the Baath Party from government jobs. Similar to the previous guidelines, set up by the Coalition Provisional Authority in May, the new ones call for the automatic dismissal of anyone who belonged to the top four levels of the party or held the top three jobs in a ministry. But the new rules allow only members of the fourth level or lower to appeal such dismissals, rather than anyone fired, as is the case now. It also gives those people the option of taking a pension if they choose not to appeal.
The appeals from those who are entitled to file them would be reviewed by two committees. A former Baathist who chooses to retire and take a pension would forfeit the right to appeal. The earlier process allowed any Baathist fired to appeal but did not provide the pension option, said a senior coalition official.
Ahmad Chalabi, the council member leading the process, estimated that 28,000 former Baathists had already been purged and that at least that many more would be dismissed. He added that the Governing Council would soon put out guidelines on purging employees in private companies. The official from the provisional authority disputed Mr. Chalabi's numbers, saying American officials had estimated that, all told, 15,000 to 30,000 people — or 1.5 to 3 percent of the Baathists in Iraq — would be purged.
When asked about Ayatollah Sistani's latest demand for direct elections, the senior official for the occupying authority said American administrators were pushing ahead with their plans for putting together an interim assembly. Those plans, outlined in an agreement reached between the authority and the Governing Council on Nov. 15, call for caucus-style elections throughout Iraq's 18 provinces by May 31 for members of the interim assembly. That assembly would then appoint officers to the interim government.
"We are working on implementing the Nov. 15 agreement," the official said. "We've got to move forward on this agreement."
The official said the provisional authority was letting the Governing Council negotiate with Ayatollah Sistani, adding, "It's so important they take the lead."
Ayatollah Sistani's statement was issued by his office, though, shortly after he met in Najaf, the southern Shiite holy city, with a delegation from the Governing Council led by Adnan Pachachi, its current leader.
Following the ayatollah's objections to the American plans in June, the White House came up with the Nov. 15 accord with its caucus-style elections. That prompted the ayatollah to tell a prominent Shiite politician that he wanted direct elections for an interim assembly.
His statement on Sunday said, "The ideal mechanism is an election, which many experts believe is possible to hold within the next months and with an acceptable level of transparency and credibility."
Ayatollah Sistani's statement also called for directly elected representatives to approve an interim constitution, which is being drafted by the Governing Council. The Nov. 15 agreement states that such a constitution needs the approval only of the council and the provisional authority.
Signs are emerging of a tenuous security situation in parts of southern Iraq, generally considered calmer than the north. On Saturday, an Iraqi-American man working for the occupying authority and an Iraqi man were found shot to death near a highway south of Basra, said Capt. Saddam Mortaza of the Basra police. The men had been blindfolded and their hands had been tied behind their backs, then they were shot in the head and dumped by a trash heap, Captain Mortaza said.
He identified the Iraqi-American who was killed as Majid Shanan Hanoun.
In the southern town of Amara, hundreds of protesters armed with rocks and homemade bombs attacked British soldiers outside the city hall.
That riot was a reaction to events on Saturday, when six people were killed by gunfire from Iraqi policemen and possibly from British soldiers during a protest over the lack of jobs. A British Army spokesman told Reuters that soldiers had fired in self-defense and had "possibly killed" one or two of the six victims.
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Citation: Edward Wong, "Direct Election of Iraq Assembly Pushed by Cleric," New York Times, 12 January 2004.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/international/middleeast/12IRAQ.html?pagewanted=print&position=
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