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Iraqi council pushes for elections in 2005
Updated: 2003-11-26 08:15
UNITED NATIONS: Iraq's interim authority on Monday submitted a timetable for
self-rule and asked the United Nations (UN) Security Council for a new
resolution that would end the US-led occupation in June.
The timetable,
worked out with US and British officials, was due on December 15 and arrived
three weeks earlier. It was requested in an October 16 Security Council
resolution, which created a multinational force in Iraq.
Jalal Talabani,
the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council, in a letter pledged
respect for human rights and promised to establish the "principle of civilian
control over the Iraqi armed and security forces."
The 24-member
US-appointed council said it would select a "provisional legislative body" no
later than May 31, 2004.
This assembly would elect a provisional
government by the end of June 2004 at which time "the Coalition Provisional
Authority will be dissolved and the occupation ... will end," the letter
said.
A new constitution would be drafted by March 15, 2005, and then
presented to Iraqis in a referendum. After the referendum, a general election
for a new government is to take place before December 31, 2005, according to
Talabani's letter to the Security Council.
"In light of what had
transpired, it has become appropriate for the Security Council to adopt a new
resolution taking into consideration the new circumstances," Talabani
wrote.
The United States and Britain are considering a new resolution
that would welcome or endorse the accelerated timetable, which Washington had
opposed in October.
But faced with a mounting death toll, the Bush
administration switched positions this month and decided to speed up a transfer
of power.
Talabani's letter did not mention continued deployment of US
and other foreign troops. But it is assumed that a new provisional government in
June will request that they stay.
France, Russia and Germany, who opposed
the war, told the council last Friday they would like to see any new resolution
give the United Nations a major role in the political transition. They also
urged a broader participation of Iraqi political groups, an apparent reference
to nationalists and members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist party.
And they
proposed a conference to bring Iraq's neighbours into the political
process.
But diplomats said the United States and Britain are not eager
to engage in a new debate over the resolution and would drop the idea if
bargaining proved too tough.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told council
members last week that Baghdad still remained too dangerous for UN staff to be
based there. An August 19 bombing of the organization's headquarters in the
Iraqi capital killed 22 people.
But he told reporters he would soon
appoint a new official to supervise UN operations from outside the country,
either in Jordan or Cyprus. And early next year at the latest, he said he would
name a new special representative to replace Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello,
killed in the August 19 blast.
Annan also said last week he would
establish a new group to discuss the political future of Iraq. It would include
six neighbouring nations and Egypt as well as the five permanent Security
Council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and
France.
Annan on Monday released a November 11 letter from Talabani that
said the "active participation of the United Nations" in the political process
was essential. It said that "time is due" for Annan to appoint a new chief envoy
for Iraq who need not live in the country but could come periodically for
consultations.
Agencies via Xinhua
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