Bombings in Iraq continue to claim more lives while Iraqis await the outcome of today's meeting between the UN team and the country's leading cleric, Omayma Abdel-Latif reports Less than 24 hours after Tuesday's car bombing outside an Iskandariya police station, south of Baghdad, which left 50 dead and scores injured, another explosion hit the Iraqi capital on Wednesday targeting yet another police recruitment centre and leaving at least 36 more dead. Attacks on Iraqi police have become a daily occurrence, as more than 300 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. No Coalition forces were killed or injured on Tuesday's blast. Spokesman for the Coalition forces Dan Williams said the blast was clearly "a plan on the part of the outsiders to spark civil war," a reference to an alleged plot by a militant linked to Al-Qa'eda to ignite a Shi'ite- Sunni conflict uncovered by US officials in Iraq this week and reported by the New York Times on 9 February (see Too true to be good?). The bombings coincided with a visit by a UN team to Iraq to gauge the possibilities of holding elections before the transfer of power scheduled for 30 June. Sources close to the Interim Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) told Al-Ahram Weekly on Wednesday that the UN mission "will proceed as planned". The team, headed by the seasoned Arab diplomat Lakhdar Labrahimi, began its mission last Saturday by holding talks with IGC members, some of whom insist that elections are not feasible because of the deteriorating security situation. This week's bombings will harden their position. Some members of the IGC, however, continued to insist that they would be feasible. The UN team is expected to meet the man who spearheaded the call for elections, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani today. Murtada Al- Kashmiri, a spokesman for the senior cleric, told the Weekly that the Grand Ayatollah stands by his words and that his sole motivation behind calling for direct elections is the interest of all Iraqi people. "Al-Sayyid Sistani believes that the Iraqi people should rule themselves by themselves. He does not recognise any foreign mandate," Al-Kashmiri said. Al-Kashmiri dismissed suggestions that Al-Sistani was vying for a prominent role in the Iraqi political arena. Emerging from two days of discussions with the UN team, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, deputy head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), described the talks as "a positive step towards bringing the UN to Iraq. The Iraqis want to proceed with the transitional political process and the UN is the most capable of providing assistance in this undertaking," Abdul- Mahdi told the Weekly. The UN mission to Iraq is the first to arrive since the international body shut down its offices in Baghdad last August following the bombing of its headquarters which claimed the lives of 17 UN personnel, including the UN special envoy. Observers argue that the UN mission is likely to face many challenges in its attempt to settle the impasse over elections. This explains why the UN officials were economic in their sense of optimism. Labrahimi described his mission as simply "technical" since it would be "confined to data gathering and to listening to all the parties concerned". But it is precisely this point which is likely to further complicate the UN mission in Iraq as IGC members are themselves divided in their views on direct elections. Such divisions were further highlighted when, during discussions with the UN team, one party insisted that the IGC should abide by the 15 November 2003 agreement to transfer power by the end of June this year, while another party insisted that elections remained the best option. According to the November agreement, once a fundamental law is agreed upon by the end of February, a national committee of selected Iraqis will organise regional caucuses in 18 governorates around the country. These caucuses will choose the members of a transitional national assembly by 31 May and, in turn, the assembly will elect an executive branch and appoint ministers. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) will dissolve and this new government will assume sovereign powers until elections are held in December 2005. This US-inspired proposal, however, was put on hold when Al-Sistani effectively vetoed it by demanding that any transfer of power be carried out through direct elections. This view was supported by some prominent members inside the IGC, as well as the SCIRI. Abdul-Mahdi explained that elections remained "better than any of the other available options". He referred to a recent SCIRI-commissioned study conducted by a group of Iraqi experts on census and politics of administration. "The study concluded that, technically, elections are feasible and could be conducted within a limited period of time." Other voices within the IGC, however, disagree. They refer to the lack of security and of a proper population census, as well as to the fact that almost four million Iraqis are living abroad as major hurdles on the path towards carrying out truly representative elections. The present head of the IGC Mohsen Abdel- Hamid, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, pointed out that while he respected Al-Sistani's views, he believes that priority should be given to the transfer of power. He said that the proposed caucuses should provide a sufficient basis for a transitional legislature. Although this schism and the week's violence are likely to overshadow the UN mission, Iraqis nevertheless remain hopeful that a meeting between the UN team and the Grand Ayatollah will resolve the deadlock.
