Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims marched peacefully in the capital yesterday to demand an elected government, as US and Iraqi officials prepared to seek the UN secretary-general's endorsement of American plans for transferring power in Iraq.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been reluctant for the UN to play a greater role in Iraq until Washington agrees to greater responsibility here and until he is convinced the country is safe.
Underscoring those dangers, 24 people were killed and about 120 were injured when a suicide bomber blew up his truck on Sunday at a gate to the headquarters compound of the occupation authority in Baghdad, Iraq's health minister, Khudayer Abbas said yesterday.
PHOTO: AFP
Huge crowds of Shiites, estimated by reporters at up to 100,000, marched about 5km to the University of al-Mustansariyah, where a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani delivered a speech which he said was directed at Annan, the US occupation authority and its Iraqi allies.
Al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite leader, has rejected a US formula for power transfer through a provisional legislature selected by 18 regional caucuses, insisting on direct elections instead.
The legislature is supposed to appoint a transitional government, which will take over from the US-led coalition administration on July 1 before full elections in 2005.
"The sons of the Iraqi people demand a political system based on direct elections and a constitution that realizes justice and equality for everyone," al-Sistani's representative, Hashem al-Awad, told the crowd. "Anything other than that will prompt people to have their own say."
The crowd responded by chanting: "Yes, yes to elections. No, no to occupation."
"What our religious leadership is doing today is at the heart of its mandate," cleric Faras al-Tatrasani, 36, said. "We are demanding democracy. And that's what America came to give us."
Iraqi police said they had no estimate about the size of the crowd, but it was formidable. Crowds of Shiites were joining the rally throughout the day.
Two US military helicopters hovered low over the demonstrators but otherwise there was no sign of American soldiers. Scores of armed Iraqi police stood by.
"This demonstration is a message to America that we want elections," said Naim Al-Saadi, a 60-year-old tribal chief and one of the demonstrators.
Many marchers linked hands. Others carried portraits of al-Sistani and other Shiite leaders and banners saying "Real democracy means real elections."
About 30,000 Shiites had held a similar demonstration for elections on Thursday in the southern city of Basra, a Shiite dominated region.
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