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CNN Sunday Morning
The New Iraq
Aired February 08, 2004 - 09:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Another major election looms ahead that could directly impact the presidential race in November. It's the planned transition of power in Iraq at the end of June. That handover is just over four months away, and there's still deep disagreement among Iraqis over the election process. U.N. officials have arrived in Iraq to try to sort it out. CNN Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the latest on their mission, plus other developments today.
Good day, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Frank. Top U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he's come here to try to solve a dilemma, and here's the dilemma. The U.S. is supposed to hand over power, as you mentioned, back to Iraqis. Now, they had a caucus-type plan, a complicated series of indirect elections. There's opposition to this, primarily from the top Shia Muslim cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. So Brahimi and his team are going to go see Sistani in the holy city of Najaf, as well as other political and local leaders, altogether spending about a week to ten days on a fact-finding mission to decide whether indeed they can hold elections.
Now, against that backdrop, there's a shift taking place on the military front. U.S. troops are turning over and today Japanese troops started to arrive on their first military mission essentially since World War II.
And on other fronts, Frank, an explosion at a police station about 30 miles south of Baghdad, that happened yesterday, but today, police officers there are saying it may have been an inside job set by one of the police officers themselves. Frank?
BUCKLEY: So, Jane, how far away are we from knowing about the process there, about the election and whether or not it is going to move forward on the date expected?
ARRAF: It's really quite fluid, but in terms of whether actually an election, as we know it, people going to the polls and voting, will be held, that really is very much up in the air. There are a lot of officials who believe that this country just is not ready for an election. For one thing, there's no census, so it would be very difficult to create voter rolls, but really, what the Shia's want is some way to make sure that they get the power they've been denied for so many years and it's the same thing that everybody else wants, the Kurds and every other group here. Now, this is a country obviously that was dominated by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim crowd. There are all sorts of groups here that want a piece of the pie now, and what the U.N. is trying to do is figure out the best way to do that, some sort of compromise solution that will actually work in a country that is still essentially not very stable. Frank?
BUCKLEY: All right, Jane Arraf in Baghdad, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 8, 2004 - 09:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Another major election looms ahead that could directly impact the presidential race in November. It's the planned transition of power in Iraq at the end of June. That handover is just over four months away, and there's still deep disagreement among Iraqis over the election process. U.N. officials have arrived in Iraq to try to sort it out. CNN Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the latest on their mission, plus other developments today.
Good day, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Frank. Top U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he's come here to try to solve a dilemma, and here's the dilemma. The U.S. is supposed to hand over power, as you mentioned, back to Iraqis. Now, they had a caucus-type plan, a complicated series of indirect elections. There's opposition to this, primarily from the top Shia Muslim cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. So Brahimi and his team are going to go see Sistani in the holy city of Najaf, as well as other political and local leaders, altogether spending about a week to ten days on a fact-finding mission to decide whether indeed they can hold elections.
Now, against that backdrop, there's a shift taking place on the military front. U.S. troops are turning over and today Japanese troops started to arrive on their first military mission essentially since World War II.
And on other fronts, Frank, an explosion at a police station about 30 miles south of Baghdad, that happened yesterday, but today, police officers there are saying it may have been an inside job set by one of the police officers themselves. Frank?
BUCKLEY: So, Jane, how far away are we from knowing about the process there, about the election and whether or not it is going to move forward on the date expected?
ARRAF: It's really quite fluid, but in terms of whether actually an election, as we know it, people going to the polls and voting, will be held, that really is very much up in the air. There are a lot of officials who believe that this country just is not ready for an election. For one thing, there's no census, so it would be very difficult to create voter rolls, but really, what the Shia's want is some way to make sure that they get the power they've been denied for so many years and it's the same thing that everybody else wants, the Kurds and every other group here. Now, this is a country obviously that was dominated by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim crowd. There are all sorts of groups here that want a piece of the pie now, and what the U.N. is trying to do is figure out the best way to do that, some sort of compromise solution that will actually work in a country that is still essentially not very stable. Frank?
BUCKLEY: All right, Jane Arraf in Baghdad, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
