Occupation Watch Bulletin, January 25, 2005

Occupation Watch Bulletin
January 25, 2005
By Andrea Buffa
www.occupationwatch.org

ELECTION DIVIDES A NATION

In less than a week, the much ballyhoo'd election for national assembly will take place in Iraq, despite ever-escalating violence that will force Iraqis to risk their lives if they wish to vote:

Violence Spreads in Iraq Poll Run-Up
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8937

14 Iraqis Killed, 40 Wounded in Blast at Baghdad Mosque
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8889

5 car bombs strike Baghdad targets
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8880

Kidnapping, more deaths rock Iraq
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8858

In an attempt to provide some security for Iraqis on election day, the interim Iraqi government will close the country's borders from Jan. 29 - 31, cut mobile and satellite phone services, ban travel between Iraq's 18 provinces, lengthen curfew hours, restrict the use of vehicles, and institute other draconian measures, according to independent journalist Dahr Jamail. Despite these measures, the government is expecting a bloody day:

Election Divides a Nation
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8938

The Bush administration promises that the elections will improve Iraqis' lives and bring them one step closer to American-style "democracy", even as the administration tries to lower expectations regarding the electoral turnout and any reduction in the insurgency's potency.

But the more pertinent question is, what are Iraqis saying about the latest American plans for the future of their country? The following quotes by Iraqis are from this week's news stories on the elections. They are not easy to come by, partly because, as Robert Fisk recently pointed out, more and more Western reporters in Baghdad are reporting from their hotels rather than the streets of Iraq's towns and cities, for fear or being kidnapped or killed:

Hotel Journalism Gives American Troops a Free Hand As the Press Shelters Indoors
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8845

WHAT IRAQIS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE ELECTIONS:

Just days from going to the polls, Iraqis are frightened. One potential voter said fearfully: "Baghdad will surely burn during the election days. I think more about my own survival than I do about the election campaign."

Many in Baghdad have already left for Jordan, Syria and Dubai. Others away on business or the haj pilgrimage are delaying their return.

University students in the capital say they will stay at home until after the election. Some Government officials are refusing to go to work.

The election on Sunday is portrayed as a turning point for Iraq but few in Baghdad believe there will be any diminution of violence. Many say the poll will serve only to crystallise differences among the three main Iraqi communities: the Shiite, Sunni and Kurds.

Zarqawi's declaration of war fuels fear of violence in run-up to poll
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8939

********************

Dalal is not happy with the meal she has prepared. She has not been able to go out shopping because of a mortar attack on the market and her house has been without water for two days.

But when Dalal was asked to name the most important thing missing from her dinner table, and from those of other middle-class families, she answered with one word: "Hope."

It is a grim indictment of conditions in Iraq that the prospect of national elections in a little over a week has failed to lift the mood of pessimism. Most Iraqis say they want to vote, but few believe an elected government will make any improvement to the security situation, which dominates their lives. .

Abu Mohammed, her husband, a retired military officer, said: "This country is getting worse. No one used to make a difference between Shia and Sunni. That's all we hear about now.

"The country is heading towards civil war."

Hope no longer on the menu as weary Baghdad prepares to vote
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8903

********************

"I will not be voting because it is a useless charade," says Salah Abrahim as he pushes his car towards a petrol station to get fuel in a bustling street in the Karrada district of Baghdad, a sector of the capital city populated primarily by Shia Muslims. .

Others on the same street are more sanguine about Iraq's first free elections in more than half a century and will obey the fatwa issued by the Shia spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered religious leader in Iraq and a supporter of the elections. As the majority of the Shia in Iraq live by his edicts, it is likely that his representatives will gain the most seats in the transitional parliament and that is a powerful spur for younger Shia voters like Alia Halaf who can only remember the oppression of the Saddam Hussein period and the hegemony of the Ba'ath Party. "I will vote no matter how many car bombs are used," he explains. "My 17-year-old neighbour was kidnapped, so I hope the elections will bring us more security. They simply must." .

As palm fronds blow in the breeze at the end of a grey day in Baghdad, a policeman who asks to be called Ali, pulls his black ski-mask further up his face as he articulates the conundrum facing his people. "I think most Iraqis just want security and jobs," he says. "I don't care which party wins, we just want peace and a better living situation. But I don't see how January 30 will change any of this."

Dying for Democracy
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8940

********************

At Friday prayers in prominent mosques, speakers were quick to denounce the morning attack on the Taf mosque in southwest Baghdad:

"We condemn the targeting of places of worship," Mahmoud Sumaidae, a Sunni prayer leader, said at the Um al-Qura mosque, known for its fierce anti-occupation rhetoric. "What happened this morning in targeting the mosque is sabotage aimed at dividing the nation and its unity."

At Baratha, a revered Shiite mosque, the preacher, Jalaledin Saghir, declared that the attacks "will not sway us from our path, nor will they break our will.

"Our Sunni brothers have distanced themselves from and condemned these acts because we have lived together side by side for centuries, and during this long history, families have been made and tribal ties forged and cemented by coexistence," Saghir said.

But even in the shared moment of denunciation of the attacks, a gulf persists between the two communities over the Jan. 30 elections. .

"Whatever do, it will not change the outcome because there are only 10 days separating us from the day when we will say, 'No to dictatorships!' " said. As Saghir spoke, worshipers chanted: "We will go to the ballot boxes even if we have to crawl."

At the Sunni mosque, Sumaidae said the violence was proof that the climate was too unsettled and too dangerous to hold the elections.

At 2 Baghdad Mosques, Unity Against Violence, Not on Vote
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8909

********************

"The elections in Iraq scheduled to take place this month need to be postponed. Elections are needed, but the timing is wrong, with the insurgency growing with every passing moment and Iraqis bracing themselves for the worst. Few Iraqis feel safe enough to cast a vote and fewer still know who the candidates are or what they stand for.

"When I speak to relatives in Iraq, they seem far more concerned about the security of their families than the elections. They say the situation is quickly spiraling into chaos. Election officials are being killed, threatened and kidnapped daily and the entire Electoral Commission in Anbar province west and north of the capital has resigned." -Anas Shallal, Iraqi-American

Postpone Iraq's Elections
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8895

********************

"There hasn't been a drop of water in the faucets for six days. Six days. Even at the beginning of the occupation, when the water would disappear in the summer, there was always a trickle that would come from one of the pipes in the garden. Now, even that is gone. We've been purchasing bottles of water (the price has gone up) to use for cooking and drinking. Forget about cleaning. .

"Water is like peace- you never really know just how valuable it is until someone takes it away. It's maddening to walk up to the sink, turn one of the faucets and hear the pipes groan with nothing. The toilets don't function, the dishes sit piled up until two of us can manage to do them- one scrubbing and rinsing and the other pouring the water. .

"It's amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, "Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh." Which means, "If you see death, you settle for a fever." We've given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water." -Riverbend, Iraqi blogger

Bleak Eid...
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8957

********************

In other news from Iraq this week, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, and the U.S. government has completely given up on looking for them:

Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8766

SIGN UP FOR OW'S EMAIL BULLETIN: To sign up for the Occupation Watch
Center's weekly email bulletin, go to
http://www.occupationwatch.org/email.php

:kick: