By Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Associated Press, 12 December 2005
Patients, soldiers and prisoners began voting Monday in parliamentary elections, three days ahead of the general population, while insurgents said the balloting violated God's law, and new violence killed at least 12 people.
Five Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, denounced Thursday's elections as a "satanic project," vowing to continue their war to establish an Islamic regime, according to an Internet statement. But they made no threats to disrupt the process, unlike earlier balloting when militants warned they would attack polling stations.
President Bush cautioned that the elections "won't be perfect."
"Iraqis still have more difficult work ahead, and our coalition and a new Iraqi government will face many challenges," he said in a speech in Philadelphia.
Asked about the number of Iraqi casualties from the war and the insurgency, Bush said: "I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis."
To curb election day bloodshed, Iraq will close its borders, extend a nighttime curfew and restrict domestic travel starting Tuesday. Thousands of Iraqi forces will guard polling stations, with U.S. and other coalition troops ready in case of a major attack.
In a development that could affect the elections, 13 prisoners who were apparent victims of abuse were found at an overcrowded detention center run by the Interior Ministry, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari ordered an investigation into what he described as an "unhealthy phenomenon." A similar case surfaced last month.
"I will not allow such dealing with any prisoner," he said.
U.S. officials hope the new parliament can help quell the Sunni-dominated insurgency so American forces can begin heading home. The 275-member assembly will be the first full-term parliament, serving for four years, since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster.
Al-Jaafari said a timetable for a withdrawal would depend on the ability of Iraqi forces to take over security.
"We want the multinational forces to leave, but we don't want security to disappear as well," al-Jaafari said. "When the Iraqi hands are in complete control of the security situation in Iraq, then we will tell the multinational forces, 'Thank you. Please leave the Iraqi lands.'"
At the largest election rally of the campaign, thousands of Shiite Muslims filled the streets of Baghdad's sprawling slum of Sadr City, chanting Islamic and anti-insurgent slogans.
"Yes, yes to Islam! Yes, yes to Iraq! Yes, yes to the religious leadership!" the group yelled as they waved Iraqi flags and pictures of the sect's top leaders amid tight security.
A new opinion poll found most Iraqis disapprove of the presence of U.S. forces in their country, yet they are optimistic about Iraq's future and their personal lives.
More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of coalition troops, and less than half, 44 percent, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners.
But three-quarters say they are confident about the parliamentary elections and more than two-thirds expect things to get better in the coming months, the poll said.
The Internet statement could not be independently verified, but if authentic, it was a rare instance of several militant groups joining to announce their stance.
"The conspiracy in Iraq against the mujahedeen, the so-called political process ... is nothing more than a satanic project, just like those before it," the statement said.
"To engage in the so-called political process and in the renegade election is religiously prohibited and contradicts the legitimate policy approved by God almighty for the Muslims in our constitution, which is the holy Quran," it said.
An unsigned statement believed to be from an insurgent group and distributed in the Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah said Sunnis could use the elections to make some political gains but that "fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers."
In Egypt, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa urged all Iraqis to vote and "participate in the building of a new Iraq," adding that all fighting and police crackdowns should be suspended for the polling.
An empty minibus loaded with explosives blew up Monday near a Baghdad hospital, killing three civilians and injuring 13, including five police officers, authorities said.
A U.S. soldier was killed Monday by a bomb in Baghdad and another died a day earlier in a suicide blast near the city of Ramadi, the U.S. command said. The deaths brought to 2,144 the number of U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.
Clashes killed two police officers and injured nine, police said. Two other people died in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad's Dora district.
Gunmen killed three men and injured a woman when they opened fire on a pickup truck with Education Ministry license plates.
A roadside bomb in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed a woman and injured five.
Police also said a businessman and his 23-year-old son were kidnapped in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district.
Monday's early voting saw the first of 1,500 patients cast ballots at Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital, with officials bringing a box around to the bedridden in various wards, said Yousif Ibrahim, director of the election center. Police and soldiers also voted early, displaying their ink-stained fingers.
On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country can cast ballots at polling centers in 15 countries.
Suspected insurgents held in detention but not convicted are eligible to vote, officials said. Saddam, who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982, also can vote but it is not known whether he would.
Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election to protest the U.S. military presence, enabling the Shiites and Kurds to dominate parliament, a move that sharpened communal tensions and fueled the insurgency. This time, more Sunni Arab candidates are running, and changes in election law to allocate most seats by province instead of based on a party's nationwide total all but guaranteed a sizable Sunni bloc in the next assembly.
Turnout in January was about 58 percent but less than 5 percent in the predominantly Sunni province of Anbar, a hotbed of insurgency.
Still, Shiites are expected to win the biggest share of seats. Shiites form an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people, compared with 20 percent for the Sunni Arabs.
In the discovery of the 13 prisoners, a statement by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry did not say why they needed treatment, but said an investigating judge also ordered the immediate release of 56 people apparently held without reason at the Baghdad facility — which was inspected by investigators Dec. 8.
Opposition parties and Sunni Arab groups have accused the government and the Shiite-dominated security forces of human rights abuses.
The Interior Ministry did not say what had caused their injuries or if they were consistent with abuse or torture. An officer at the ministry, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the 13 were taken to a hospital due to "signs of torture."
According to the Human Rights Ministry, the facility next to the Interior Ministry housed 625 detainees in "very overcrowded" conditions.
Last month, an inspection by U.S. troops at a building of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry in Baghdad's Jadriyah district found up to 173 malnourished detainees, and some showed signs of torture. On Nov. 15, al-Jaafari ordered an investigation and promised results within two weeks.
Separately, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, head of operations at the Defense Ministry, was asked by reporters if Iraqi forces had captured non-Arab foreigners such as Britons. "The defense and interior ministers said previously that foreign terrorists have been captured. They were from different nationalities, not only Brits, but even from the United States of America," he said, without elaborating.
Steve Bird, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office, said Mohammed apparently was referring to British nationals Mobeen Munwef, who was detained by U.S. forces a year ago as a suspected security threat, and Abdul Reza, who was detained by British forces in southern Iraq in early 2005.
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Citation: Qassim Abdul-Zahra. "Some Iraqis Cast Ballots in Early Voting," Associated Press, 12 December 2005.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AtuOjF_TzxLLRNfdEmwE2_RvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
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