Shiites demand Saddam's execution

Baghdad - Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through Baghdad on Tuesday, clamoring for Saddam Hussein's execution in the latest show of strength by a community repressed for decades by the former dictator.

"Saddam is a war criminal, not a POW ... execute Saddam," the 5,000-strong crowd chanted. It was believed to be the first public demonstration in Iraq to demand death for Saddam since was captured by U.S. forces on December 13.

A similar protest was held Tuesday in the southern Shiite city of Najaf, where hundreds of people marched through the streets.

The rallies were far smaller than one Monday in which nearly 100,000 Shiites marched in the Iraqi capital to demand early, direct elections, rejecting a U.S. blueprint for handing over power on July 1 to an unelected Iraqi provisional government.

Faced with the growing Shiite opposition, the United States asked the United Nations on Monday to send a team to Iraq to see if elections could be held. U.S. officials hope the team would conclude that early elections are not feasible and convince Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani to drop his demand for them.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was considering the U.S. request.

Shiites are believed to comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people but had virtually no share of power during the 35-year rule by Saddam's Sunni dominated government. Thousands of Shiites were executed during his regime, which was ousted by the United States in April last year.

"Since the fall of Saddam, we got our total freedom. We call for the execution of Saddam the infidel, who killed our sons and kept them in mass graves," said Karima Hanoun, 40, speaking through her black veil.

She said 11 members of her family were executed by Saddam.

"Every good Muslim woman and every honest human being wants Saddam to be executed. How can America make him a POW?" asked Samira Hassan, 43, from Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad.

POW status under the Geneva Conventions grants Saddam certain rights including freedom from coercion and a guarantee that he can be tried only by an international tribunal or the occupying power.

The demonstrators who marched from Sadr City to Firdous Square in central Baghdad carried posters of a Shiite leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of a cleric killed in 1999 by suspected Saddam agents. Firdous Square was the scene of the dramatic toppling of a Saddam statue on April 9 -- an event that marked the fall of the capital to U.S. forces.

Protesters also voiced their objections to the ongoing discussion among Iraqi leaders about transforming Iraq into a federal state. Many Shiites and Sunnis fear it would break up Iraq and grant virtual freedom to the northern Kurds, another community suppressed by Saddam.

"There are problems this country is going through. This is a call from us (Shiites) for our rights," said al-Sheik Ghaith al-Khazaal, the head of al-Sadr's office in Baghdad before the demonstration ended peacefully.

The Shiites have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks, especially in the Shiite dominated southern Iraq. But most of their demonstrations have been to oppose the power transfer plan.

It calls for a provisional legislature to be selected by 18 regional caucuses, which in turn will pick a transitional government. Shiites fear it will deprive them of power again.

Much of the Shiite show of force has emerged after Ayatollah al-Sistani, the country's most prominent Shiite cleric, issued a public demand earlier this month for early elections.

Al-Sistani, 75, also wants an elected assembly to ratify security accords governing the presence of coalition troops after July 1 as well an interim constitution to take effect until a final charter can be drafted and ratified in 2005.

The United States says there isn't enough time to hold free and fair elections in such a short time because of the precarious security situation, the absence of an election law and the lack of voter rolls. But it also cannot afford to alienate a community that has so far generally avoided attacks on coalition forces like their Sunni countrymen.

U.S. officials and leaders of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council met with Annan on Monday to seek a solution to the deadlock. But no quick-fix formulas emerged except an assurance by Annan that he will consider sending a team to look into the election demand.

"On the elections, I have indicated that I ... don't believe there may be enough time between now and May to hold elections," Annan told reporters.

The security risks of holding elections were underscored by a devastating vehicle-bomb attack Sunday at a gate to the coalition's headquarters compound that killed at least 31 people and injured 121.

Under an agreement promulgated on Nov. 15, Iraqis won't have a direct vote until next year when they choose delegates to draft a permanent constitution. They will vote twice again in 2005, once to ratify the new constitution and again to elect a new assembly.

U.S. officials here have said they hope the U.N. team will determine that al-Sistani's election demand is unfeasible. Asked about the possibility of reconsidering his opposition to an early ballot, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, told reporters in New York that the question was legitimate "and one where the U.N., with its expertise in elections, can offer a perspective." -- CNN News

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