BAGHDAD, 21 January 2004 — Across from the bomb-hit UN headquarters in Baghdad, opinion is unanimous. Ordinary Iraqis want the United Nations back and supervising the transfer of power from US-led occupation forces this year.
Some said yesterday that only the world body could ensure the transfer was fair, a day after American and Iraqi officials asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to get involved in the controversial process to hand back sovereignty by June 30.
But elsewhere in Baghdad, a few accused the United Nations of abandoning Iraq and questioned how much clout it would have.
“We need its experience. It has helped with elections in many countries,” said Mohi Abdul-Rasool, 50, a retired printing house worker shopping at a market opposite the three-story UN building, parts of it still gouged from a car bombing in August that killed 22 people.
That and another attack led Annan to pull all international UN staff out of Iraq last year. Other Iraqis said they wanted the United Nations back to add momentum to rebuilding the country.
After scorning the United Nations for the 15-member Security Council’s refusal to approve the invasion of Iraq, the United States now hopes Annan and his team can rescue the process leading to a provisional Iraqi government by June 30.
At issue is a demand from Iraq’s Shiite leader, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, for direct elections immediately for a provisional government.
The United Nations is likely to send a mission to help resolve those demands, although no decision has been reached on when UN staff would return to Iraq.
“They should return to organize the transfer of power,” said Usama Al-Kaissi, a civil engineer, looking across the road where the UN’s blue flag still flies. Kaissi said he agreed with Sistani that direct elections should be held to pick the provisional government. “I’m Sunni, but I support his opinion,” he said.
Some analysts have said the Sunni minority which dominated government until Saddam Hussein’s downfall last April would see its interests suffer in direct elections. Shiite Muslims make up more than 60 percent of Iraq’s people. Tens of thousands of Shiites marched in Baghdad on Monday in support of Sistani’s call for direct elections.
On Monday, Annan said further discussions were necessary before he could make a decision to dispatch the mission. UN officials said a separate four-member security unit, about to go to Iraq, would have to report back first.
The US-led occupiers have called for a new national assembly to be established in Iraq through a caucus procedure before a temporary government can take office on June 30.
