Introduction:
Tony Blair's man in Iraq has told Channel 4 News that elections for
a new government will definitely be held within a year. It's the first
time Sir Jeremy Jeremy Greenstock has given such a firm timescale
for elections and comes as the Iraqi Governing Council meets late
into the night to try to agree a constitution. But elections can't
come too soon for Iraq's majority Shi'a desperate for self-government
after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein....Jonathan Miller
reports now from Karbala where millions of Shi'a have been massing
for the biggest religious gathering in more than 30 years....
Reporter: Thirteen hundred years ago a Muslim holy
man was beheaded by the army of a profligate tyrant in what's now
the Iraqi desert. The victim's name was Husayn, grandson of the Prophet
Mohammad. As he faced his executioners, Husayn is said to have uttered
the immortal words, "death with dignity is better than a life
of humiliation". A martyr's mantra that has inspired Shi'a Islam
down through the centuries.
Jawad Al-Hassab - 'Hussein, Revolutionary & Martyr' (translated
from Arabic): In every age thousands of Shi'a died for the sake of
Husayn, those in the mass graves died for the sake of the revolution
of Husayn, we learn from him not to surrender to injustice, not to
bow to the tyrant, we always challenge injustice.
Reporter: Tens perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraq's
Shi'a Muslims were murdered by Saddam Hussein after they rose up against
him 13-years ago he banned their annual Ashura pilgrimage to the holy
city of Karbala, the site in the desert where his namesake Husayn
was beheaded. Now Saddam's gone they're coming back...by the million.
They come to grieve for Husayn and to rededicate themselves at his
shrine to the search for justice. In post-Saddam Iraq, that means
political justice. Centuries of oppression by Sunni Muslim rulers
ended with the US-led invasion, now Iraq's Shi'a majority is restless.
Muhammed Taki Al-Mudarrassi, Grand Ayatollah (translated
from Arabic): We are afraid democracy will not come to Iraq, if we
felt that by waiting another five or even ten years democracy would
come to Iraq we would wait but our assessment of conditions in Iraq
is that the country is living through a series of crises and these
crises could explode in a way that would prevent us even having a
unified, independent state.
Reporter: Today I put the Ayatollah's angst to Britain's senior representative
in Baghdad. Do you believe that the CPA understands fully the importance
of having a firm timetable to guide this process and give it credibility?
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Central Provisional Authority: Yes
to the extent that we've set one, elections are going to happen before
March next year. Anybody who listens to what's going on understands
that those dates have now been set. This law we're now drafting will
set them more firmly. These things need to be paced so democracy works
properly and isn't a rush job.
Reporter: To many Shi'a such assurances from their
occupiers will sound more like excuses for lack of action. Suicide
bombers are striking somewhere every few days at the moment, 230 killed
this month. Here in Najaf, Iraq's other holy city, a huge car bomb
exploded last August and killed Iraq's most prominent Shi'a politician
and 85 other worshippers as they left Friday evening prayers.
Another big bomb like the one that went off here (Najaf) and the patience
of the Shi'a may just snap there will come a point in time at which
their leaders may simply be unable to rein their people in as they
despair of their chance to get democracy by peaceful means. It happened
against the British mandate in the 1920's, it happened against Saddam
Hussein in 1991, and in Iraq, history has an unsettling habit of repeating
itself.
Reporter: We meet with the spokesman of a firebrand
cleric called Muqtada al-Sadr, they're really impatient. We want the
Americans out now he says, the Americans are quite happy to have Al-Qaeda
or theTaliban riding roughshod all over Iraq he tells me, just as
long as they're safe at home, it suits them to have Iraq insecure.
Reporter: Even mainstream religious leaders worry
that Americans are giving into the bombers and they shudder at the
prospect.
Muhammed Taki Al-Mudarrassi, Grand Ayatollah (translated
from Arabic): If the people become suspicious and disturbances break
out in Iraq and let's say the Shi'a begin to resist all our hopes
and dreams will be destroyed. Frankly, the Americans have a big problem,
they're worried that elections might lead to an extreme Islamic government
in Iraq, allied to Iran, this is the real American fear, we must all
work to put in place some principles or guarantees to ensure this
fear does not become a reality. We are ready to co-operate on this.
Reporter: We cross into the death zone, behind razor
wire, sandbags, bunkers and blast walls live those who run Coalition
HQ, Karbala. The local American big man was suicide bombed out of
his downtown office two months ago and has been on the receiving end
of several mortar attacks and small arms since then. Still he insists
he gets into his armoured car with his bodyguards every day and goes
out to talk to the Iraqis that matter.
Reporter: Ayatollahs?
John Berry, Central Provisional Authority, Karbala:
No I can't say that I've had an opportunity to pay a call on an Ayatollah
but then to tell you the truth, I don't need to because...I don't
have a lot of opportunity to have because they live in Najaf or they
live in Iran.
Reporter: There are some here in Karbala who have
something to say...
John Berry, Central Provisional Authority, Karbala:
Yeah, yeah....I have not had an opportunity to pay a call on an Ayatollah
to tell you the truth...
Reporter: As millions of Shi'a commemorate the massacre
in Karbala of Husayn and his companions, many will remember more recent
horrors in Karbala's killing fields. In 1991, Saddam brutally crushed
a Shi'a rebellion inspired by George Bush Sr. The joy of liberation
hasn't healed the wounds of that betrayal. The worst thing now is
the promises of freedom and democracy might once again turn to blood
and tears.
Reporter: Jonathan Miller, Channel 4 News, Karbala.
Courtesy of Channel
4 News
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