WORLD
THE BATTALION
HA
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Shiite Muslims march in support
of early elections for Iraqi leader
By Hamza Hendawi
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Tens of
thousands of Shiite Muslims
marched in Baghdad on Monday
to demand early elections, the
biggest public display of Shiite
political power here since the
collapse of Saddam Hussein’s
Sunni-dominated regime.
The protest aimed to send a
message to the United Nations
and the White House that Shiites
will not accept a U.S. formula for
transferring power by July 1 to a
legislature selected in regional
caucuses instead of by a direct
vote as the Shiite clergy demands.
Hours after the march, U.S.
and Iraqi officials asked the
United Nations to send a team to
study the possibility of holding
elections in Iraq. Secretary-
General Kofi Annan said he
wanted more details but
acknowledged the issue was
urgent. He said he hoped to
make a speedy decision.
"On the elections, I have indi
cated that I ... don’t believe there
may be enough time between now
and May to hold elections,"
Annan told reporters. “But the
team will go down and look into
that further and report to me.”
The protesters, estimated by
reporters at up to 100,000, car
ried posters of Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. Iraq’s
Iraqis stage
peaceful march in
Baghdad
Tens of
thousands of
Iraqi Shiites Baghdad
marched through the
streets of Baghdad on X—'
Monday to protest U.S. plans for
a provisional government not
directly elected by Iraqis.
Protesters
marched from
Antor Square...
GREEN
ZONE
Baghdad
2 mi
2 km
... to the
University of al-
Mustansariyah.
SOURCE Associated Prass
most influential Shiite cleric,
whose opposition to the U.S.
plan threatens to delay the July 1
deadline for the end of the U.S.-
led occupation.
Al-Sistani also wants an
elected assembly to ratify secu
rity accords governing the pres
ence of coalition troops after
July 1 as well an interim consti
tution to take effect until a final
charter can be drafted and rati
fied in 2005.
Shiites are believed to com
prise about 60 percent of Iraq’s
25 million people. U.S. authori
ties cannot afford to alienate a
community which has so far
generally avoided attacks on
coalition forces.
“The sons of the Iraqi people
demand a political system based
on direct elections and a constitu
tion that realizes justice and
equality for everyone,” Hashem
al-Awad, a representative of al-
Sistani, told the crowd. "Anything
other than that will prompt people
to have their own say.”
In response, the crowd chant
ed: “Yes, yes to elections! No,
no to occupation!”
Saying he had a message for
the United Nations and the U.S.-
led coalition, al-Awad told the
crowd: “No regime can exist
without a role for the people.”
Of the protests, Bremer said
in New York: “There are
demonstrations all the time,
some of them not always very
friendly to the coalition, I might
add, but they’re peaceful and we
welcome it.”
U.S. officials insist early
elections are not feasible
because of Iraq’s precarious
security situation, the absence of
an election law and the lack of
voter rolls. An election could
also hand power to well-organ
ized groups such as remnants of
Saddam’s now-banned Baath
party and religious extremists
rather than Iraqis willing to
cooperate with the coalition.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Non-surgery skin cancer
treatment looks better
CHICAGO (AP) — A non-surgical treatment for
basal cell skin cancer results in better cosmetic
results but might be less effective than surgery at pre
venting the disease from returning, a study found.
The treatment is called photodynamic therapy
and uses skin cream and concentrated light to acti
vate the cream, which kills cancer cells. It is used
in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but a Food
and Drug Administration advisory committee last
year recommended against U.S. approval.
Basal cell skin cancer, often caused by over
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million people worldwide each year, making it
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generally the preferred treatment, but since
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the face, some patients worry about scarring.
The new study, published in Monday’s
Archives of Dermatology, involved 101 patients
who received either surejery or two treatment
sessions a week apart with Metvix.
Tuesday, January 20th
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