BAGHDAD,
May 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi capital Baghdad
witnessed several Shiite demonstrations Monday, May 19, condemning the
U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Thousands
of Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims marched to their main mosque,
northwest of Baghdad, to mark the birthday of Islam's Prophet
Mohammed, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).
Shiites,
who celebrate the birthday a week later than Sunni Muslims, were
forbidden to publicly mark the date under the regime of Saddam
Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.
The
crowd filled the street leading to the Kazimiya mosque in the
northwest of Baghdad and carried banners in the green color of
Islam, calling for good government.
"No
to injustice," "No to occupation," "No to
Israel," "Yes to Islam," chanted the demonstrators as
speeches began from a platform.
Imam
Mohammad al-Fartussi, who last week threatened violence against
"sinful" women, alcohol vendors and cinemas showing
"indecent" films, offered praise for the fall of Saddam and
called Iraq "the land of imams... land of Islam."
Increasing
Suspicion
 |
“Forming a
provisional Iraqi government is a difficult task,” Bremer (L)
|
The
demonstrations reflect the increasing suspicion that surrounds
U.S. plans in Iraq. This occurred as Iraq's top U.S. overseer Paul
Bremer began his second week on the job amid continuing lawlessness in
the country, AFP reported.
In
his frenzied first seven days, Bremer repeatedly promised to restore
the law and order that crumbled along with Saddam Hussein's regime
nearly six weeks ago.
But
despite issuing a host of tough decrees, Bremer has failed to stem the
rampant crime and street violence plaguing the country.
“Forming
a provisional Iraqi government is a difficult task. We should first of
all take care of security, order, essential services and payroll,”
Bremer said in a press conference Monday, May 19.
Despite
a security crackdown over the weekend in Baghdad and an
announcement that some 7,000 policemen had returned to their jobs
since the end of the war, ordinary Iraqis still felt unsafe on the
street with gunfire rife and police a near invisible presence.
In
Baghdad, almost all the police stations have been destroyed or looted
since U.S. troops took control of the capital on April 9. Only two
have so far reopened, and they have no equipment whatsoever. Baghdad's
top police job remains vacant.
Bremer
has also been criticized for backing away from an earlier U.S.
timeline on forming a government in Iraq, but U.S.-led coalition
officials Monday insisted government plans were still on track.
"We
want to have an Iraqi voice in everything we do here but it would be
wrong to do that precipitously," said a source at the
Organization of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA),
which is administering post-war Iraq.
Officials
from Iraqi groups that met with Bremer last week have said that he
back peddled on what they said were earlier pledges to give them a
lead role in forming a new interim government in the next few weeks.
"We
understand that they want to have as much power as possible but we
told them: 'You won't be directly elected, you won't have any direct
experience of government," the source said.
"'Of
course you will have input into the government but, since you are not
directly elected, it would be nonsense for you to have direct
executive power,' the source said.
The
comments came on the same day that a prominent Iraqi called for
internationally-supervised elections in Iraq.
Adnan
Pachachi, a onetime foreign minister who returned to Iraq on May 6
after 33 years in exile, told the independent Az-Zaman daily
that elections should be held under international supervision.
An
interim government should create an election code and laws to clear
the way for direct elections to a constituent assembly that would draw
up a constitution, Pachachi said.
A
Protest Against Expelling Baathists
Meanwhile,
some 100 drivers of the Iraqi public transport company demonstrated
Monday, May 19, to protest the expelling the company’s director by
the U.S. civil administration in Iraq for having links to the
dissolved Baath party, reported AFP.
The
Iraqi Public Transport Co. is one of the oldest transportation
companies in Iraq, as it was founded in 1938. It is affiliated to the
Ministry of Transport and has a fleet of vehicles of around 1550 buses
operating inside Baghdad and among governorates.
Upon
taking over, Bremer issued a decision to destroy the remains of Saddam
Hussein’s regime. He has officially banned all former Baath
officials from taking public office.
