Protests as Iraq takes first steps towards democracy

IRAQ took its first tentative steps toward democracy yesterday and they began with a boycott and demonstrations.

But the meeting of opposition leaders ended with a 13-point statement laying down the path to a democratically elected federal government.

None of the leaders who met at the US-conducted forum in the ancient biblical city of Ur, were in doubt that the road ahead would be tough.

The meeting in a giant air conditioned tent at Tallil air base not far from the 4,000-year-old ziggurat at Ur, a terraced-pyramid temple of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, agreed to reconvene in 10 days.

“We have no intention of ruling Iraq ... We want you to establish your own democratic system based on Iraqi traditions and values,” White House Zalmay Khalilzad assured the delegates. “I urge you to take this opportunity to co-operate with each other.”

The participants at the forum included Kurds, and Sunni Muslims from inside the country as well as others who have spent many years in exile. US officials issued invitations to the groups, but each picked its own representatives. “It’s critical that the world understand that this is only the fledgling first meeting of what will hopefully be a much larger series of meetings across Iraq,” said Jim Wilkinson, spokesman at US Central Command.

It was an “unscripted, free-flowing forum of ideas” to get Iraqis talking about their desires for the future.

In nearby Nassiriya, thousands of Shi’ite Muslims whose representatives were boycotting the meeting demonstrated against the gathering, chanting “No to America and no to Saddam.”

Shi’ite leaders oppose US plans to install a retired American general, Jay Garner, as head of an interim administration.

“Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi people and will be a return to the era of colonisation,” said Abdul Aziz Hakim, a leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

The 13-point statement released after the meeting stressed the need to work toward a democratic Iraq built on a rule of law and equality. It also called for dissolving Saddam’s Ba’ath Party but left open the question of separating Church from the State.

President George W Bush declared yesterday “our victory in Iraq is certain, but not complete” as he voiced satisfaction with military success in ending Saddam Hussein’s regime. “These are good days in the history of freedom,” he said.