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Protesting US Raids, 47 Iraqi Bodies Boycott Polls
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The
summiteers said the US is committing “genocide” in Fallujah.
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By
Mazen Ghazi, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
November 17 (IslamOnline.net) – In what could cost the new Iraqi
government its necessary legitimacy to win the hearts and minds of the
people, 47 Sunni, Shiite, Turkoman and Christian bodies have so far
declared their boycott for the general election slated for early next
year, due to the grisly US attacks in Fallujah.
Concluding
a one-day conference in the headquarters of the influential Sunni
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Baghdad’s Um Al-Qora mosque,
a plethora of bodies representing Iraq’s religious mosaic agreed
that the open-ended Fallujah offensive was an obstacle to an effective
political participation.
They
further said that the outcome of the election is settled in advance
for the “collaborators” with the US occupation troops.
The
conference is organized by the Iraqi National Founding Conference, a
coalition of Sunni, Shiite and independent Iraqi figures.
Chief
among those who inked the communiqué are the AMS, Sheikh Jawad
Al-Khalsi, the secular National Arab Current, the Iraqi-Turkoman
Front, the Democratic Christian Party and the communist People’s
Union party.
Voter
registration is already under way, but it's been overshadowed by the
US-led Fallujah onslaught, bombings and kidnappings. Registration runs
till December 15.
The
interim Iraqi government said it has so far verified 63 parties and
movements out of 90 applicants.
The
January vote will also elect a 275-seat assembly, whose primary task
will be to draft a permanent constitution for Iraq.
Under
Iraq's election laws, there will be no electoral boundaries for the
January vote, with the whole country treated as a single constituency.
Political parties will contest the vote by slates of candidates.
“Imposed”
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Fallujah
witnesses wide-scale destruction
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The
communiqué, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, said the
January election does not speak for the Iraqi people as long as it is
“imposed” by the US-backed interim government and rejected by a
clear majority of political and religious powers.
The
summiteers warned that the current wave of massive US raids across
Iraq threatened the territorial integrity of the country and would
virtually prove as futile the outcome of the upcoming election.
“The
US raids against An-Najaf, Karbala, Samarra, Mosul, Baghdad and more
recently Fallujah represent an obstacle to the political participation
in the occupied country,” read the final statement.
The
conference further called the US offensive into Fallujah a
“genocide”.
Some
10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000 Iraqi national
guard soldiers unleashed
a long expected onslaught on the resistance hub on November 8,
capping long nights of massive US raids.
The
successive raids have caused massive damage in the city, with dead
bodies still littering the streets.
The
current offensive looked set to come at a heavy price for the US
military as at least 39 American troops have been killed and up to 250
others evacuated to the US military hospital in the German city of
Landstuhl so far, according to US military estimates.
The
US military also said about 1,200 resistance fighters have been killed
in the bloody incursion.
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