[Mb-civic] Robert Fisk on Iraq Elections: Iraqis Voting for "Freedom From Foreign Occupation

[Michael Butler]

Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org
Robert Fisk on Iraq Elections: Iraqis Voting for "Freedom From Foreign
Occupation"

Monday, January 31st, 2005
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1516244

A day after elections in Iraq, we go to Baghdad to speak with Robert Fisk,
chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. Fisk says, "What
this election has done is not actually a demonstration of people who demand
democracy, but they want freedom of a different kind, freedom to vote, but
also freedom from foreign occupation. And if they are betrayed in this, then
we are going to look back and regret the broken promises. [includes rush
transcript - partial]

Millions of Iraqis turned out to cast ballots Sunday in the country's first
multi-party elections in half a century.

At least 44 people were killed and over 100 wounded in suicide bombings,
shootings and mortar attacks. The attacks came amid unprecedented levels of
security - including shoot-on-sight curfews, closed foreign borders, a ban
on cars and travel restrictions within Iraq.

Iraqi voters headed to more than 30,000 polling stations set up across the
country, with the polling beginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. Election
officials originally said 72 percent of the country's 13 million registered
voters turned out to vote. They later revised the number to 8 million, or
just over 60 percent.

With foreign monitors mostly staying away for fear of kidnapping, it was
difficult to assess the fairness of the election or accuracy of the turnout
estimates. But the U.N.'s electoral adviser in Iraq, Carlos Valenzuela, said
he was encouraged by early indications.

Meanwhile in at a news conference in Washington, President Bush hailed the
elections as a resounding success.

    * President Bush, White House press conference, January 30, 2005.

President Bush speaking yesterday at the White House. While officials in
Washington hailed the Iraq elections as a resounding success in democracy,
there was a marked division in voting turnout within the country. The
turnout was high in Shia and Kurdish-dominated regions, but in Sunni areas
the number of voters was much lower. In Samarra for example, streets were
reportedly deserted and fewer than 1,400 ballots were cast by a population
of 200,000. Tens of thousands of Iraqi expatriates in 14 other countries
also voted.

Iraqis were electing a 275-member transitional National Assembly, which will
draft a new constitution, and pick the country's next president and two vice
presidents. The president, in turn, will select a prime minister.
Preliminary results are expected in about six days, with a full result not
due for 10 days.

Robert Fisk, chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent,
writes in his latest article, "It was the sight of thousands of Shias, the
women in black "hijab" covering, the men in leather jackets or long robes,
the children toddling beside them, that took the breath away. If Osama bin
Laden had called these elections an apostasy, many did not heed his Wahabi
threats. They came to claim their rightful power in the land - that is why
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the grand marja of the Shias of Iraq, told them to
vote - and woe betide the US and British if they do not get it."

    * Robert Fisk, chief Middle East correspondent for the London
Independent.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Robert Fisk of the London Independent,
long-term Middle East correspondent, now back in Baghdad, covering the
elections. This latest report on the possibility of perhaps a prime minister
or president being Kurdish. Robert Fisk.

ROBERT FISK: Well, if you hear the noise in the background, you'll excuse
me, there are some of your helicopters passing over here. I don't think it's
an issue whether the Kurdish ­ a Kurd may be a prime minister or president.
That's always possible. The issue is what is going to be the American
involvement in providing Iraq with its next interim government. Again, I
repeat this election was for a national assembly to write a constitution,
which will have to be approved by a referendum, which in December there
would then have to be another election for a real quote-unquote government.
The issue here you see is this: In the aftermath of these elections and we
don't know the results and won't know them for days to come, it is quite
possible that the administration here, which, of course, is effectively in
the hands of the United States and here Ambassador Negroponte will be
involved, will try to form a government coalition. This would include
certain leading Shiite politicians who won seats in yesterday's election. It
would include some Sunnis who were running, in some cases, on Shia tickets.
This was a list system, proportional representation election, and of course,
it would undoubtedly include some Kurds. Now, it would look very nice and
democratic and free if a coalition government could include Shiites and
Sunnis and Kurds. And that I'm sure is what the Americans would like to see.
But then the largest Shiite alliance, which scored seats in the election,
could turn out to be the official opposition and Shiites would then say,
well, it is very nice to have this lovely coalition of all our ethnic
groups. But we won the election. We are 60% of the people and now we're in a
coalition where we don't have the majority of power and our largest party is
confined to being the opposition in parliament. And that, at the moment, is
the biggest danger, that we're going to see such administrative refining of
the results that we will produce and westernize infinitely fair coalition
government comprising Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds, but which will not
represent the overall election results, which must show a Shiite majority. I
mean there are actually members of the largest alliance of Shiite groups
saying now that they are certain they've got more than 50% of the vote,
which was cast yesterday. Now if that's the case, the Shiites will say, well
hold on a second, we're the majority, we got the most votes, we got the
greatest number of seats and you are making us part of a coalition and the
biggest party of the opposition in parliament and that, of course, would
then be betrayal just as it would be if they suddenly signed that the
American and British and other foreign forces, they are not going to leave.

So, we eventually ­ I mean we set up an enormous amount of expectations for
this election. And I have got to admit, I have to admit having seen it and
been there and walked with people to the polling stations in Baghdad, that
the Shiites who wanted to vote did so unanimously and with great courage.
Are they now going to be portrayed by the slippery process of coalitioning a
government, which will suit the West, which will, of course, include Kurds
and then of course must include some Sunnis as well or are they going to be
effectively told, ok, the Shiites now have what you people in America like
to call empowerment. This is now effectively a Shiite republic, not an
Islamic republic, but this country is a Shiite country, which it is, of
course, in real life. Will the election result, will the parliament, will
the next government actually reflect the reality on the ground? If it does,
then we are moving if it doesn't, then it would be better that the elections
would not be held.

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Fisk, I want to thank you for being with us, speaking to
us from Baghdad on this day after the Iraqi elections. Robert Fisk, long
time Middle East correspondent for the Independent newspaper in Britain.

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