As Iraqis head to polls, blasts widen Sunni rift

Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Seattle Times news services

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Voters went to the polls today to decide on a new U.S.-backed constitution, but not before a last-minute flurry of violence.

Iraq's Sunni Arab minority made a strident re-entry into politics yesterday, bombing offices of a political party that urged support for the constitution while posting insurgents and tribal fighters at some polling places to ensure that Sunnis could vote safely against the proposed charter.

Shiite religious leaders, meanwhile, mobilized followers yesterday for a massive show of support in favor of the draft constitution. They were hoping to secure approval of the charter despite continued opposition among the angry but increasingly divided Sunnis.

Militants attacked five offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the prominent Sunni group that agreed to back the charter in exchange for last-minute concessions. Among the offices targeted was one in Baghdad and the main office in Fallujah, which was set on fire. No one was injured in those attacks.

In Baghdad, armed men launched simultaneous attacks on four polling centers last night and sabotaged power lines feeding the capital, leaving much of it in darkness on the eve of the referendum.

The capital was eerily quiet under clear blue skies this morning. Polls opened at 7 a.m.

Farid Ayar, a top official in the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission, said voting was being conducted at all of the country's 6,000 polling stations.

President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari were shown live on Al-Iraqiya television voting in a hall in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Minor violence was reported. A roadside bomb exploded near a polling station in western Baghdad as it opened, injuring one policeman, officials said. U.S. troops exchanged fire with insurgents in Ramadi; it wasn't immediately clear if anyone was injured. South of Basra, three armed men attacked an empty polling station at 3 a.m.; the three were arrested, police said.

Sunni Arabs, who account for an estimated 20 percent of Iraq's population, largely have boycotted politics since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath Party in April 2003. But the referendum has both galvanized and divided the disaffected minority.

While the attacks against the Iraqi Islamic Party were going on, branches of the party in the west announced they were splitting with the headquarters in Baghdad. In Fallujah, crowds gathered around an Iraqi Islamic Party office set ablaze by guerrillas from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq movement, chanting "No!" to the constitution.

At the main Sunni mosque in the largest western city, Ramadi, fistfights broke out between supporters and opponents of the draft charter.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by the Jordanian Zarqawi and infused with foreign fighters, distributed leaflets in the west pledging punishment for all who voted today. "We have warned; we shall not be blamed," one leaflet read.

But six insurgent groups led by Iraqis countered with a call for restraint by their foreign allies. In one of the first signs that some Iraqi insurgents are shifting from violence to politics, Muhammad's Army, the Mujahedeen Army and other organizations based in Ramadi said al-Zarqawi's group "should not get involved in minor fights that only serve the occupation."

The statement, distributed at Ramadi mosques, said voting by Sunnis would "answer the Iraqi and American politicians who claim that the resistance has no political agenda."

It was not clear whether the statement represented the views of the groups' disparate leaders.

In Taji, north of Baghdad, an insurgent leader who served in Saddam's intelligence services oversaw guerrillas providing security at polling places on the eve of the referendum. As a reporter watched, he chastised a fellow insurgent for bombing another site.

In the far west, tribal fighters in heavily Sunni Anbar province deployed to protect some polling centers. Men holding AK-47s took up posts at some sites in Fallujah. In Ramadi, however, local tribes declined to protect the polls, telling authorities that al-Zarqawi's group had posted a death threat on the gate of a tribal sheik, said Khidhir Mohammed, head of the Anbar Provincial Council.

The referendum today follows months of grueling negotiations among Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds. These often centered on the meaning of Iraq as a nation. Until this week, Sunni Arabs, who were underrepresented in the interim government because of their failure to participate in Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, were set to vote en masse against the proposed charter because they believe it mandates a weak central government and fails to uphold Iraq's Arab identity.

Under heavy U.S. pressure, however, the proposed constitution was amended this week to open a four-month window for more changes next year. Those changes persuaded the Iraqi Islamic Party to support the charter. A smattering of the other Sunnis followed suit.

Opponents of the constitution face an uphill battle. They need to muster a two-thirds "no" vote in three provinces. Sunnis have a significant majority in four provinces, and the Iraqi Islamic Party's decision has persuaded some to support the constitution, but many other Sunnis consider the move a betrayal.

Still, Sunni clerics tempered their calls for "no" votes with appeals for dialogue and nonviolence.

Iraqi Islamic Party leaders acknowledged the rifts caused by their change of position, but predicted that the damage could be repaired and that Sunni factions would coalesce again in time for new parliamentary elections Dec. 15.

"This will not start civil war between the Sunnis, but people will need time to understand the essence of issues and then they will calm down," said Ayad Samaraii, a leader of the party, who blamed the attacks on his group's offices on former members of Saddam's Baath Party.

Few Iraqis or Western observers believe the charter, crafted largely by Iraq's majority Shiites and Kurds, will be defeated.

"It's conceivable that there could be a 'no' vote," said one Baghdad-based official of a Western government that supports the constitution. "But I'm going to sleep well tonight."

"The constitution after the amendments became more balanced and fair," said Iyman Abed Rahman, a Sunni lawyer from the northern city of Mosul.

Officials expect a high turnout. A poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group, found that 87 percent of Iraqis planned to vote. In Sunni areas of Iraq, where violence and calls for a boycott depressed turnout during the January elections, 83 percent said they would vote.

Iraq police and soldiers were assigned to protect the voting sites, with U.S. forces remaining in the background to respond to outbreaks of violence, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.

In the Kurdish north, voters appeared ready to approve the constitution, which enshrines guarantees for their federal region and recognizes them as a distinct minority in Iraq.

Compiled from The Washington Post, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.