Protest as Iraqi opposition meets

2003-04-15 08:24

Nasiriyah, Iraq - Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday in this Shiite bastion against a meeting of the Iraqi opposition, stage-managed by the United States, to plot the country's future, a correspondent reported.

"Yes to freedom ... Yes to Islam ... No to America, No to Saddam," the crowd chanted in the centre of the southern Iraqi city.

Religious figures led the gathering estimated by journalists to number between 8 000 and 10 000.

"We want our voice to be that of the Hawza," read one banner referring to the school of Shiite religious leaders in the neighbouring city of Najaf, a centre of Shiism, the majority sect in Iraq.

"The popular and religious forces that have organised this demonstration feel that the Hawza in Najaf is the sole representative of the Iraqi people," imam Warrad Nasrallah told AFP.

"It's for the Hawza and not the United States or Britain, to chose the representatives of the people," he said, surrounded by young men carrying the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and shouting slogans against the Nasiriyah meeting.

The United States was convening a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups for the first time since Saddam Hussein's fall to spell out its vision of the initial steps for Iraq's future.

But Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim opposition group has announced it will not attend while Ahmad Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress and has been tipped as a future leader, is sending a representative in his place.

The controversy comes as the United States faces mounting calls to speed up the transition process, even though it has said the war launched March 20 to topple Saddam's regime is not yet over.

The list of invitees has not been made public and the meeting is being held under extremely high security on an air base under US control near Nasiriyah.

The US delegation was to be led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House special representative to the Iraqi opposition.

The Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sairi), whose headquarters are in neighbouring Iran - a source of tension between Tehran and Saddam's regime - said late on Monday it was snubbing the meeting.

- AFX