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Suicide attacks in Iraq ahead of vote

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Suicide attacks in the central Iraqi city of Baquba have killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more. Two car bombs exploded within minutes of each other near government buildings in the capital of Diyala province, 40 miles north of Baghdad. A later third blast targeted the city’s main hospital, where victims of the first attacks were being treated. The attacks come just days before parliamentary elections, the third since the US-led invasion in 2003. Marco Werman talks with Sahar Issa, a correspondent for McClatchey Newspapers in Baghdad.

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• The struggle for Iraq

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  U.S. and Iraqi officials have been warning of insurgent attacks as Parliamentary elections draw closer.  Those warnings were vindicated today.  Suicide bombers killed more than 30 people in the city of Baquba.  The timing is worrisome.  The elections are scheduled for Sunday.  The balloting will decide who will govern Iraq as U.S. forces withdraw.  The vote will also help determine whether Iraq can overcome the sectarian tensions that continue to divide the nation.  This is a campaign song for one of the candidates.  The first singer asks will you vote?  The response is yes I will vote and I will defy terrorism despite the swords that have fought me.  Yes, some Iraqi’s are enthusiastic about the upcoming election, but reporter Sahar Issa with McClatchy Newspapers in Baghdad says other Iraqis are skeptical.

SAHAR ISSA:  They find it very funny, actually.  They laugh that there are elections and that they would go to elect, to repeat what they believe has been a very unproductive four years.

WERMAN: So you’re saying people are kind of chuckling about this.  Are they making jokes about this election?

issa: You can’t imagine the jokes.

WERMAN: Tell me one.

ISSA: Like, for instance, the posters that are being posted.  There are very many secular women on the slate this election and many of them are very beautiful.  They have make up on and tinted hair and others that are in the traditional cover, the hijab.  And I spoke to one gentleman who said if winning the elections depends upon how long people stare at posters, I am sure this young lady will win.  And she was, certainly, very beautiful.

WERMAN: Do you think the humor is healthy or is it a sign of cynicism?

ISSA: It is a good thing when it is lighthearted, but at the base of it, yes there is cynicism.  People have simply lost their belief.  They are disenchanted.  The feel that they have gone through one period and after electing and being enthusiastic about the people they are electing and what happen, they are so let down.  And so yes, there is cynicism behind it.

WERMAN: Hundreds of candidates were banned just before the elections because of their links to the Bathists.  How do you feel about all those alleged Bathists being told you can’t run?

ISSA: To be fair, a lot of the candidates whose names were banned were people who are newcomers to the political scene.  And therefore they were investigated and according to the constitution and to the accountability and justice law, they were banned.  But, not all of them were new.  There are faces who have been on the Iraqi political scene for years and they are well know, they are liked by some, they are hated by others.  Nevertheless, they have been there.  They have made names for themselves and they have a following.  And these people suddenly, after so many years, to be thrown out at the time when their followers will be left adrift, this is the thing that points to, how do you say, unclean intentions on the part of the people who banned them weeks before the elections.  It’s unbelievable.

WERMAN: You know, in a country where democracy is trying to flourish, we’ve heard a lot about the ways candidates are attempting to appeal to voters.  Handing out goods and things, everything from sneakers to gold watches to chicken dinners.  Have you seen a lot of evidence of this stuff?

ISSA: And blankets and rice and cooking oil to the degree Marco that the spokesman for the Iraqi government comes out with a statement on their website that warns against this.  He says the Merjariya, which is the highest religious authority for the Shiite have banned this practice.  So be careful lest you be one of the people who go for eternal hell because you are doing something that is prohibited.

WERMAN: Is this kind of a season of door prizes in the lead up to the election or do Iraqis, if they receive these gifts, feel an obligation to vote for the candidate that gave the that thing.

ISSA: I will tell you what happened in the last elections.  The Iraqi people took the presents and voted for someone else.

WERMAN: They voted for who they wanted to vote for.

ISSA: Yes, in the first place.  This is what happened.  And this time they are laughing at it, those of the people who are being offered these prizes.  If they need them, they will take them.  If they don’t need them, they will not take them.  But I doubt if it will sway their vote one way or the other.

WERMAN: What does democracy then mean in Baghdad today?  If you were to walk up to the average person on the street and say there are 100,000 troops here in Iraq, but what in your mind does democracy mean?

ISSA: Marco, democracy is a new concept for Iraqis.  We are the culture and the society that has the father figure.  The father figure in the family, the father figure in the tribe, even the father figure in the state and people are quite happy, unfortunately, because this is the way the society is built, the tribal society.  They are quite happy to do what their elders tell them to do.  Now you throw at them a concept that is totally alien and foreign to them.  What is democracy for the Iraqis?  They don’t believe in democracy inside their families.  They don’t know what democracy truly means.  It is not part of their culture.  I think because democracy is a context that should be built from the base upwards, it will take quite a while for Iraqis to really understand and this is Iraqis on the streets, I’m not speaking about college professors, I’m not speaking about politicians or doctors or engineers, I’m speaking about the man on the street, the farmer, the mechanic, the man who works at the petrol station, the man who makes sandwiches in the vendor.  They don’t know really what democracy is.  They are happy to be able to speak out loud now.  They are happy to have the freedom of speech that for a long time they didn’t have.

WERMAN: Are they happy to go to the polls this weekend and vote?

ISSA: They are happy to be able to.  Yes.  Yes they are happy to be able to.  Yes I believe so.

WERMAN: Sahar it’s clear despite the three bombings in Baquba today that violence in Iraq has dissipated, but tell us to what extent the people are still fearful.

ISSA: The people are tentative.  Although, how do you say, the barriers have come down somewhat.  People are going out; life in Baghdad has come back.  But people, how do you say, if a tire blows, you see faces go pale.  If a balloon blows, faces go pale.  If something breaks, some glass or like a plate or something, people instantly almost have a heart attack.  It will take time Marco.  It will take time to erase.  It’s difficult to erase, but at least to lessen the effects of the violence that Iraq has gone through.

WERMAN: Sahar Issa with McClatchy Newspapers in Baghdad, very good to speak with you again.  Thank you.

ISSA: Thank you.

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