No news on CPT is starting to sound like bad news ...
We had thought that maybe after the elections, the CPTers might be released but there is no word as yet. It could be that there are negotiations going on for their release and as such, CPT would not be saying anything about that. They are likely to take some time, if that is the case, because CPT has a long-stated policy that they will not pay ransoms (it's all part of this stopping the cycle of violence thangy ... you know, if you pay the ransom, you are just encouraging people to kidnap someone else down the line).
As far as election results in Iraq go ... well, there were some glitches here in Jordan but nothing like in Iraq. One of my former students in Iraq wrote to tell me about the demonstration held by Sunnis, some Shia and the secular Shiite parties in the Yarmouk district of baghdad right outside the Iraqi Islamic Party Headquarters (one of the parties that wanted more Sunni involvement).
Note: I made some slight corrections to his English!
I don't know, but I doubt if the UN will do anything but shake its head and frown a bit about all this. They don't really have much power to do more. I've no doubt that cheating occurred but I have alot of friends who did vote for list 555. They tell me there are some good people in this party, and perhaps they are right and all this doom and gloom everyone is forecasting for Iraq is not accurate.
Anyway regardless of the cheating that took place, I think that the religious shia party still would have won. As my journalist friend pointed out from a recent poll, most Iraqis just want a strong dictator again (though you would think they had gotten THAT out of their system by now ... but then again, its all they've ever known) and after a strong dictator, the next thing they want is a religous dictator. So what do you expect?
So much for bringing democracy to Iraq "the easy way."
We had thought that maybe after the elections, the CPTers might be released but there is no word as yet. It could be that there are negotiations going on for their release and as such, CPT would not be saying anything about that. They are likely to take some time, if that is the case, because CPT has a long-stated policy that they will not pay ransoms (it's all part of this stopping the cycle of violence thangy ... you know, if you pay the ransom, you are just encouraging people to kidnap someone else down the line).
As far as election results in Iraq go ... well, there were some glitches here in Jordan but nothing like in Iraq. One of my former students in Iraq wrote to tell me about the demonstration held by Sunnis, some Shia and the secular Shiite parties in the Yarmouk district of baghdad right outside the Iraqi Islamic Party Headquarters (one of the parties that wanted more Sunni involvement).
Note: I made some slight corrections to his English!
"It was a very big one about thousands of people gathered to contest against the false results of the elections and contest against the integrity of IECI (the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq) who standing by 555 (United Iraqi Alliance, the winning religious shia party) side.
The demonstration [was] attended by Adnan Al-Dulaimi, chief of Iraqi people conference; Tariq Al-Hashimi, secretary-general of Iraqi Islamic Party, and Dr. Alaa Maki, spokesman of the Islamic Party. They run a speech and Dr. Alaa read a final statement issued by the Iraqi Consensus Front (I think he means List 618, the Iraqi Accordance Front of which the IIP is part) which contested about the false results and they asked for investigation by UN in areas which whitnessed big violations and to stop the terror directed by the government."
I don't know, but I doubt if the UN will do anything but shake its head and frown a bit about all this. They don't really have much power to do more. I've no doubt that cheating occurred but I have alot of friends who did vote for list 555. They tell me there are some good people in this party, and perhaps they are right and all this doom and gloom everyone is forecasting for Iraq is not accurate.
Anyway regardless of the cheating that took place, I think that the religious shia party still would have won. As my journalist friend pointed out from a recent poll, most Iraqis just want a strong dictator again (though you would think they had gotten THAT out of their system by now ... but then again, its all they've ever known) and after a strong dictator, the next thing they want is a religous dictator. So what do you expect?
So much for bringing democracy to Iraq "the easy way."
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