Kurdish Leader Named President in Iraq
Apr 6, 7:07 AM (ET)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal
Talabani as the country's new interim president Wednesday, reaching
out to a long-repressed minority and bringing the country closer to
its first democratically elected government in 50 years.
Ousted members of the former regime - including toppled leader Saddam
Hussein - were to watch the announcement on televisions in their
prison cells, Iraqi officials said. It wasn't clear if they would
watch it live or on a tape.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a
Sunni Arab, were chosen as Talabani's two vice presidents. After weeks
of at times tense negotiations, the three candidates received 227
votes. Thirty ballots were left blank.
The announcement of the vote drew applause, and many lawmakers crowded
around Talabani to congratulate him. In the Kurdish north, which had
led uprisings against Saddam, crowds danced in the streets,
celebrating.
Talabani was expected to be sworn in to his post, which is largely
ceremonial, on Thursday, then name Shiite leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari
prime minister, clearing the way for talks on a new constitution that
must be completed by Aug. 15.
Speaking after his election, Talabani called on neighboring countries
to help prevent foreign insurgents from crossing into Iraq. He also
made a gesture toward those who side with the insurgency.
"As for the Iraqis who are carrying weapons out of patriotic and
anti-occupation motives, those people are our brothers and it is
possible to talk with them and to reach a solution," Talabani said.
He added that his government would work to provide security so that
U.S.-led coalition forces "could return home after the completion of
building (Iraqi) armed forces that are capable of finishing off
terrorism."
Aside from electing the prime minister, the president's post is
largely ceremonial. Talabani and his two vice presidents - known
collectively as the presidential council - are supposed to "represent
the sovereignty of Iraq and oversee the higher affairs of the
country," according to the interim constitution.
Before the session began, Hussain al-Shahristani of the Shiite-led
United Iraqi Alliance said the choice of Talabani reflected efforts to
represent the nation's diverse ethnic and religious groups in the new
leadership.
"We agreed on Talabani because of his qualities and patriotic
history," he said.
The Kurdish-led coalition in parliament won 75 of the 275 seats in the
Jan. 30 elections. Kurds make up 20 percent of the country's 26
million people; Shiites make up 60 percent and the Sunni Arabs are
roughly 15 percent to 20 percent.
Human Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin told The Associated Press that
lawmakers had asked that Saddam and other jailed members of his former
government be shown the process. "There will be televisions there, and
they will be seeing it today," he said.
Saddam, captured in December 2003, has been in custody with several of
his top aides at a U.S.-guarded detention facility. U.S. military
officials declined to comment.
"This is a very important session because this is the first time in
Iraq's history that the president and his deputies are elected in a
legitimate and democratic way by the Iraqi people," interim Vice
President Rowsch Nouri Shaways said. "That's why the Iraqi government
thought it would be beneficial that the former dictator see this
unique process."
The interim National Assembly must write a permanent constitution by
Aug. 15. The constitution, along with elections for a permanent
government scheduled for December, are central parts of U.S. plans for
an eventual pullout of American troops.
For now, the fighting goes on. As the parliament met, mortar rounds
landed in the street near the Ministry of Agriculture and the
al-Sadeer hotel, injuring at least one Iraqi civilian.
The U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday that a Task Force
Baghdad soldier was killed a day earlier when his patrol was hit by a
bomb and attacked by insurgent gunmen. Four other U.S. service members
were killed Monday and Tuesday in an upsurge in violence, the military
said.
In videos posted Tuesday on militant Web sites, a man in his 20s
identified as Iraqi soldier Jassim Mohammed Hussein Mahdi was beheaded
for working with the U.S.-allied government while another man, Hussein
Taha Qassim, identified as a police informer, was shot.
The authenticity of the tapes, said to have been posted on Web sites
by the militant groups al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunnah Army,
could not immediately be verified. Al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed
responsibility for beheading numerous Western hostages and members of
the Iraqi security forces. Ansar al-Sunnah has claimed to have
kidnapped and killed several foreigners.
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