Riot, bomb scare stall Iraqi vote in Sydney
In U.S., tears and applause mark start of expatriate balloting
NBC News and news services
Updated: 2:14 a.m. ET Jan. 29, 2005
Joyful tears and frequent applause marked the start of U.S. voting Friday in Iraq?s first independent elections in more than 50 years. But the mood differed in Sydney, where a polling station for Iraqi exiles was closed for an hour on Saturday after a riot broke out and a suspicious bag prompted a bomb scare, organizers said.
Bernie Hogan, the head of Australia?s overseas voting program, said the riot erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling insults at voters leaving the polling center in a Sydney neighborhood dominated by Iraqi Shiites.
Hogan said the protesters were holding up the same black flag with white lettering that has appeared as a backdrop in videos released by Iraqi insurgents featuring foreign hostages begging for their lives.
Thair Wali, an Iraqi adviser for the International Organization for Migration, said the protesters? flag and Arabic slogans identified them as Wahabis, followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Wahabis are suspected of having influence over militants waging a 17-month insurgency in Iraq.
Picture-taking sparks melee
Wali said the fight broke out after the protesters took pictures of voters.
?This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting,? he said.
Many of Australia?s estimated 80,000 Iraqis declined to register for the election, fearing their votes would make relatives in Iraq terrorist targets.
Around 50 people wrestled in the street, threw punches and hit one another over the head with their shoes ? an insult in Iraqi culture, Hogan said.
The polling center was closed and police cordoned off the area while the contents of an unattended backpack were examined, a spokesman for the New South Wales state police said on a condition of anonymity. The bag contained water and biscuits.
Australia is one of 14 countries where Iraqi exiles could begin casting votes on Friday.
Optimism for Iraqi-Americans
In Detroit, a crowd of Iraqi expatriates gathered at 7 a.m. inside an abandoned store on Friday. Periodically, cheers would erupt from one of the 15 polling stations.
?We feel happy now. This is like America, this voting,? said Zoha Yess, 64, who moved to Inkster, Mich., nine years ago. ?We want fair, good government.?
Security was tight, with guards checking identification at the parking lot entrance and using metal detectors at the doors. Inside, beneath an oversized homemade Iraqi flag hanging from the ceiling, a poll worker wept as the first voters filled out their ballots.
With more than 100,000 potential voters, the Detroit region has the largest U.S. concentration of Iraqi expatriates.
Most Iraqi Sunnis to stay home
President Bush said Friday that the elections would set an example of democracy for the rest of the Middle East.
?This history is changing the world,? Bush said at the ceremonial swearing-in of his new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. ?The advent of democracy in Iraq will serve as a powerful example to reformers throughout the entire Middle East.?
Bush made a brief reference to the violent unrest in Iraq that has dampened political campaigning in Iraq and is exacting a growing toll on the U.S.-led military force there. Voter turnout could be limited by fear of attack, particularly in areas with large populations of Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs were the dominant political force under deposed President Saddam Hussein but comprise only about 20 percent of Iraq?s population. Sunni extremists make up the majority of the homegrown insurgents combating U.S. and Iraqi authority.
?We applaud the courage of ordinary Iraqis for their refusal to surrender their future to these killers,? Bush said.
But a large majority of Iraq?s Sunnis were planning to boycott the election, a new poll shows.
The poll of 805 Iraqi adults living in Iraq, conducted by Zogby International, found that 76 percent of the country?s Sunnis would stay home.
The poll, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, showed that just 9 percent of Sunni Arabs were likely to vote, compared with about 80 percent of Shiites.
Speaking through an interpreter, a man in Ramadi told NBC News that he would vote only if there was ?good weather? Sunday.
The interpreter, Marine Sgt. Sam Hmidan, explained: ?What they mean by ?good weather? is if there?s no shooting, no explosions, no nothing.?
?One of the happiest days of my life?
While 13 million Iraqis at home are eligible to cast their ballots, only about 280,000 overseas Iraqis have registered to vote.
Mohammad Hamo, who showed up in Nashville, Tenn., to vote with his 3-year-old son, Dillan, told NBC News that he was grateful to the more than 1,400 members of the U.S. military who had died to bring democracy to his homeland.
?If it wasn?t for all the sacrifice the American people did, and all the allied forces, we wouldn?t be here today,? Hamo said.
With few variations, the scene was being repeated in nations bordering Iraq, in a furniture warehouse in Australia and in an events center in London. The election will pick a 275-member parliament, which will in turn select a cabinet and oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution, as well as create governing councils in Iraq?s 18 provinces.
The paper ballots will be counted by election staff in five U.S. cities starting Tuesday ? Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Nashville. Once the counting is finished, on Feb. 3 at the latest, the International Organization for Migration will give the results to election officials in Iraq, who will announce them, said Jeremy Copeland, a spokesman for the IOM.
Banners read: ?Let us hear your voice?
?Iraqis are finally expressing themselves. It is a victory for all the dead that Saddam Hussein killed,? said Falastin Saheb, 25, an Iraqi who has been living in Syria for two years and was running a polling center there, in Rukn el-Din, a Kurdish neighborhood.
Banners outside the center read: ?Let us hear your voice.?
Security was tight at polling stations in 14 countries that are open through Sunday, when people inside Iraq have their chance to vote.
Private security guards frisked people entering the polling center in Syria; X-ray machines and metal detectors were deployed in Australia; and in Taastrup, Denmark, a suburb of Copenhagen, heavily armed police checked voters as they wound their way through concrete blocks set up on the road leading to the country?s only polling station.
According to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, 201,000 Iraqis live in Syria, but only 8 percent, or 16,581, have registered to vote. Many of the Iraqis fled around the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq to escape worsening security conditions.
As the low rate of registration signaled, hope was far from universal.
?I am not hopeful at all,? said Fusun Atici, an ethnic Turk from Kirkuk who voted in Istanbul. ?I think this election will only bring ethnic clashes.?
U.S. turnout about 10 percent
The U.S. turnout was only about 10 percent of the 240,000 Iraqi-Americans who were thought to be eligible. Four smaller countries ? Sweden, Germany, Britain and Iran ? registered more Iraqis than the United States.
Copeland said some Iraqis lacked documentation to prove that they were eligible, such as an Iraqi passport or a driver?s license with a photograph. False rumors that they would be charged $30 to cast their ballots or that they could lose their U.S. citizenship or benefits discouraged many others from turning out, said John Gattorn, who is responsible for organizing the voting in the Detroit area.
For some, the polling places were too far away, but others made long journeys to vote. Some Iraqis drove through the night from Boston and New York to New Carrollton, Md., a suburb of Washington, to be among the first to vote.
Some Iraqis also refused to register because they were concerned that their relatives in Iraq could face reprisal, Copeland said, even though all their information was kept confidential.
The registration period also coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha, during which thousands of pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, he said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6876911/
That's just messed up ppl in Australia waving the Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad(or similiar) and taking pictures of voters.Talk about trying to spark intimidation and conflict.Reminds me of the PBS Al-Qaeda's New Front show were salarism/wahabism is spearding through Europe it seems no where is safe from the radical movements starting up.
In U.S., tears and applause mark start of expatriate balloting
NBC News and news services
Updated: 2:14 a.m. ET Jan. 29, 2005
Joyful tears and frequent applause marked the start of U.S. voting Friday in Iraq?s first independent elections in more than 50 years. But the mood differed in Sydney, where a polling station for Iraqi exiles was closed for an hour on Saturday after a riot broke out and a suspicious bag prompted a bomb scare, organizers said.
Bernie Hogan, the head of Australia?s overseas voting program, said the riot erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling insults at voters leaving the polling center in a Sydney neighborhood dominated by Iraqi Shiites.
Hogan said the protesters were holding up the same black flag with white lettering that has appeared as a backdrop in videos released by Iraqi insurgents featuring foreign hostages begging for their lives.
Thair Wali, an Iraqi adviser for the International Organization for Migration, said the protesters? flag and Arabic slogans identified them as Wahabis, followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Wahabis are suspected of having influence over militants waging a 17-month insurgency in Iraq.
Picture-taking sparks melee
Wali said the fight broke out after the protesters took pictures of voters.
?This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting,? he said.
Many of Australia?s estimated 80,000 Iraqis declined to register for the election, fearing their votes would make relatives in Iraq terrorist targets.
Around 50 people wrestled in the street, threw punches and hit one another over the head with their shoes ? an insult in Iraqi culture, Hogan said.
The polling center was closed and police cordoned off the area while the contents of an unattended backpack were examined, a spokesman for the New South Wales state police said on a condition of anonymity. The bag contained water and biscuits.
Australia is one of 14 countries where Iraqi exiles could begin casting votes on Friday.
Optimism for Iraqi-Americans
In Detroit, a crowd of Iraqi expatriates gathered at 7 a.m. inside an abandoned store on Friday. Periodically, cheers would erupt from one of the 15 polling stations.
?We feel happy now. This is like America, this voting,? said Zoha Yess, 64, who moved to Inkster, Mich., nine years ago. ?We want fair, good government.?
Security was tight, with guards checking identification at the parking lot entrance and using metal detectors at the doors. Inside, beneath an oversized homemade Iraqi flag hanging from the ceiling, a poll worker wept as the first voters filled out their ballots.
With more than 100,000 potential voters, the Detroit region has the largest U.S. concentration of Iraqi expatriates.
Most Iraqi Sunnis to stay home
President Bush said Friday that the elections would set an example of democracy for the rest of the Middle East.
?This history is changing the world,? Bush said at the ceremonial swearing-in of his new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. ?The advent of democracy in Iraq will serve as a powerful example to reformers throughout the entire Middle East.?
Bush made a brief reference to the violent unrest in Iraq that has dampened political campaigning in Iraq and is exacting a growing toll on the U.S.-led military force there. Voter turnout could be limited by fear of attack, particularly in areas with large populations of Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs were the dominant political force under deposed President Saddam Hussein but comprise only about 20 percent of Iraq?s population. Sunni extremists make up the majority of the homegrown insurgents combating U.S. and Iraqi authority.
?We applaud the courage of ordinary Iraqis for their refusal to surrender their future to these killers,? Bush said.
But a large majority of Iraq?s Sunnis were planning to boycott the election, a new poll shows.
The poll of 805 Iraqi adults living in Iraq, conducted by Zogby International, found that 76 percent of the country?s Sunnis would stay home.
The poll, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, showed that just 9 percent of Sunni Arabs were likely to vote, compared with about 80 percent of Shiites.
Speaking through an interpreter, a man in Ramadi told NBC News that he would vote only if there was ?good weather? Sunday.
The interpreter, Marine Sgt. Sam Hmidan, explained: ?What they mean by ?good weather? is if there?s no shooting, no explosions, no nothing.?
?One of the happiest days of my life?
While 13 million Iraqis at home are eligible to cast their ballots, only about 280,000 overseas Iraqis have registered to vote.
Mohammad Hamo, who showed up in Nashville, Tenn., to vote with his 3-year-old son, Dillan, told NBC News that he was grateful to the more than 1,400 members of the U.S. military who had died to bring democracy to his homeland.
?If it wasn?t for all the sacrifice the American people did, and all the allied forces, we wouldn?t be here today,? Hamo said.
With few variations, the scene was being repeated in nations bordering Iraq, in a furniture warehouse in Australia and in an events center in London. The election will pick a 275-member parliament, which will in turn select a cabinet and oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution, as well as create governing councils in Iraq?s 18 provinces.
The paper ballots will be counted by election staff in five U.S. cities starting Tuesday ? Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Nashville. Once the counting is finished, on Feb. 3 at the latest, the International Organization for Migration will give the results to election officials in Iraq, who will announce them, said Jeremy Copeland, a spokesman for the IOM.
Banners read: ?Let us hear your voice?
?Iraqis are finally expressing themselves. It is a victory for all the dead that Saddam Hussein killed,? said Falastin Saheb, 25, an Iraqi who has been living in Syria for two years and was running a polling center there, in Rukn el-Din, a Kurdish neighborhood.
Banners outside the center read: ?Let us hear your voice.?
Security was tight at polling stations in 14 countries that are open through Sunday, when people inside Iraq have their chance to vote.
Private security guards frisked people entering the polling center in Syria; X-ray machines and metal detectors were deployed in Australia; and in Taastrup, Denmark, a suburb of Copenhagen, heavily armed police checked voters as they wound their way through concrete blocks set up on the road leading to the country?s only polling station.
According to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, 201,000 Iraqis live in Syria, but only 8 percent, or 16,581, have registered to vote. Many of the Iraqis fled around the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq to escape worsening security conditions.
As the low rate of registration signaled, hope was far from universal.
?I am not hopeful at all,? said Fusun Atici, an ethnic Turk from Kirkuk who voted in Istanbul. ?I think this election will only bring ethnic clashes.?
U.S. turnout about 10 percent
The U.S. turnout was only about 10 percent of the 240,000 Iraqi-Americans who were thought to be eligible. Four smaller countries ? Sweden, Germany, Britain and Iran ? registered more Iraqis than the United States.
Copeland said some Iraqis lacked documentation to prove that they were eligible, such as an Iraqi passport or a driver?s license with a photograph. False rumors that they would be charged $30 to cast their ballots or that they could lose their U.S. citizenship or benefits discouraged many others from turning out, said John Gattorn, who is responsible for organizing the voting in the Detroit area.
For some, the polling places were too far away, but others made long journeys to vote. Some Iraqis drove through the night from Boston and New York to New Carrollton, Md., a suburb of Washington, to be among the first to vote.
Some Iraqis also refused to register because they were concerned that their relatives in Iraq could face reprisal, Copeland said, even though all their information was kept confidential.
The registration period also coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha, during which thousands of pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, he said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6876911/
That's just messed up ppl in Australia waving the Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad(or similiar) and taking pictures of voters.Talk about trying to spark intimidation and conflict.Reminds me of the PBS Al-Qaeda's New Front show were salarism/wahabism is spearding through Europe it seems no where is safe from the radical movements starting up.
