csua.org/u/b2z -> www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1414688,00.html
The Guardian Iraq's Arab Sunnis will do a U-turn and join the political process despit e their lack of representation in the newly elected national assembly, S unni leaders said yesterday. Many Sunnis protested that the election was flawed and unfair, but in the wake of Sunday's results, which confirmed the marginalisation of what w as Iraq's ruling class, their political parties want to lobby for a shar e of power. "Our view is that this election was a step towards democracy and ending t he occupation," said Ayad al-Samaray, the assistant general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic party. He said unnamed Sunni leaders blundered in dep icting the election as a deepening of the occupation. The insurgency ravaging Iraq is based in Sunni areas, and there were fear s that the violence would escalate if the once-dominant minority was fur ther alienated. A call by clerics for a boycott, and threats by insurgen ts meant very few Sunnis voted in the January 30 poll. Having endured the brunt of US attacks in towns such as Falluja and Ramad i, many derided the ballot as an attempt to legitimise a foreign occupat ion. The consequent landslide for the Shias and Kurds means that they wi ll drive the new government and the drafting of a constitution. An alliance of cleric-backed Shias won 48% of the vote, which could give it a wafer-thin majority in the 275-seat assembly. Kurds won 26%, and a slate headed by the outgoing prime minister, Ayad Allawi, won almost 14% . All three blocs have promised to reach out to the Sunnis, who comprise a fifth of the population but won just a handful of seats because of low t urnouts in their areas. This will soon be tested as parties forge allian ces and tussle for government posts, including that of prime minister an d president. Secular Sunni leaders yesterday accepted the victors' invitation to parti cipate, potentially draining support from the insurgency. "We can't say it was wise or logical to not participate; "Now the Sunni community faces the fact that it made a big mistake and that it would have been far better to par ticipate." His party, the main Sunni group since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime , was in talks with Kurds and Shias. He added: "The Sunni community will accept to share this country with others. " Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni elder statesman, also predicted Sunnis would join the political process. "They missed an opportunity to participate and want to make up for it," h e said. Mr Pachachi's was one of two Sunni parties that did stand in the election. They hope for a better out come in elections in December, but there is no guarantee Sunnis will respond. Hardline clerics have given mixed signal s and some secular groups, such as the Iraqi National Founding Conferenc e, say the price of their participation is a timetable for US withdrawal , which Washington has resisted. Yesterday in al-Mansure, a Sunni district of Baghdad, people had no regre ts about boycotting the election. "It was not legitimate," said Faizal Muhammad, 38, a tea shop owner. He accused American patrols of intimidation and said snipers in a communi cations tower overlooking his shop were trigger-happy. Destroyed in the Gulf war, the structure was rebuilt in 1994 and named Saddam Tower. It h ad a revolving restaurant popular with tourists and members of the regim e But it was wrecked in the most recent war, and its base is now ringed by sandbags, barbed wire and cement blocks behind which US soldiers' he lmets can be seen. A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers in Baquba, gunmen killed two policemen in Mosul, mortars wounded three policemen in Baghdad, and an explosion ripped open an oil pipeline near Kirkuk.
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