AMARAH, IRAQ -- Impatience with Iraq's occupying forces boiled over yesterday as unemployed Iraqis pelted British troops with stones and a top Shiite Muslim cleric demanded the country's next parliament be elected -- not chosen by local caucuses, as foreseen by the Americans. Also yesterday, a U.S.-backed Iraqi politician said an ongoing purge of members of ousted leader Saddam Hussein's Baath party had pushed 28,000 Iraqis from their jobs, with a similar number expected to follow.
In the southern city of Amarah, waves of protesters, some armed with sticks and shovels, rushed British troops guarding city hall, a day after clashes killed six protesters and wounded at least 11.
The British drove the crowd back from the compound, which also houses the U.S.-led occupation force and the 1st Battalion of Britain's Light Infantry. Booms and flashes of light from makeshift bombs exploded in the melee.
"We are trying to permit a peaceful protest, but prevent loss of life or damage to property," said British Maj. Johnny Bowron.
Tensions in Amarah, 320 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, erupted Saturday after hundreds of Iraqis gathered to protest authorities not keeping a promise to give them jobs. Yesterday, demonstrators said they were looking to avenge those killed Saturday. There were no reports of injuries yesterday.
Demonstrators sent a representative to talk to British and Iraqi officials, who promised them 8,000 jobs, according to witnesses. But protesters said a similar promise made weeks before had not been fulfilled and the clash ensued. Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam's security forces were the biggest employer in this city of 400,000.
Sunday's comments by Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, could complicate U.S. plans to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis by July 1.
Al-Sistani, whose views are highly influential among Iraq's Shiite majority, said the current U.S. plan to have regional caucuses select members of a provisional national assembly would give birth to an illegitimate Iraqi government.
"This will, in turn, give rise to new problems and the political and security situation will deteriorate," al-Sistani said in a statement released by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
Al-Sistani demanded the assembly be directly elected, saying credible elections could be held in Iraq within months.
Al-Sistani also balked at U.S. plans to seek quick approval for the continued occupation of Iraq through its hand-picked Governing Council. The ayatollah said only an elected government could sign off on the presence of U.S. troops beyond July 1.
Al-Sistani's opposition have forced the Americans to change their transition plans once already. Participation by Shiites, who make up 60 per cent of Iraq's 25 million people, is essential to the success of the transition.
But drafting a new plan to accommodate the cleric's views would make Washington look as if it is allowing policies to be held hostage to the wishes of one man. It also would further anger Iraq's minority Sunnis, who had dominated politics in Iraq for decades and are bristling at the attention given to the Shiites they have traditionally oppressed.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands more former high-level Baathists are set to lose their jobs in ongoing purges, said Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi, a favourite of the Pentagon who heads a committee aimed at ridding Iraq of the influence of Saddam's party.
For Chalabi, the idea of reconciliation with top Baathists is a non-starter "How can you reconcile those laying dead in mass graves with those who killed them? We can only talk about forgiveness."
U.S. administrator Paul Bremer dissolved and banned the Baath party in May, a month after U.S. forces swept into Baghdad.
