hardliners, killed at least 20 people in bloody attacks against the country’s first multi party elections in half a century. Streets were reportedly deserted in several areas of Iraq, including Mosul, which the Bible says was the ancient town of Nineveh, and where the country’s Christian minority has expressed concern about violence against them.
The violence came after militant groups, including one led by al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed to bomb "infidel" polling stations and kill anyone who dares to vote, including Christians and Jewish people.
"For the last time, we warn that (Sunday) will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the (election) game of America and Allawi," Zarqawi’s group added in an Internet statement on the eve of Sunday’s historic vote.
SUICIDE ATTACKS
One of the deadliest suicide attacks occurred when a bomber with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up in the queue at a polling station in east Baghdad, the Reuters news agency quoted an identified official as saying.
Another bomber reportedly killed four people in west Baghdad and a mortar attack in southern Baghdad also killed at least two, news reports said. Mortar rounds reportedly also rained down on other cities, such as Mosul as well as Baquba and Hilla.
A suicide car bomb apparently also killed a policeman near a Baghdad polling site and at least four people reportedly died in a blast at a voting centre in the Sadr City slums, a Shiite stronghold. The violence came after militant groups, including one led by al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed to bomb "infidel" polling stations and kill anyone who dares to vote.
"For the last time, we warn that (Sunday) will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the (election) game of America and Allawi," Zarqawi’s group added in an Internet statement on the eve of Sunday’s historic vote.
"DEFY GUERRILLAS"
Yet as he voted in Baghdad, Sunday, January 30, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged his countrymen to defy the guerrillas and go to the polls.
"This is a historic moment for Iraq, a day when Iraqis can hold their heads high because they are challenging the terrorists and starting to write their future with their own hands," he told reporters.
At least one human rights watcher said Christians will follow Allawi’s advise. "[Iraqi] Christians are going to vote, they have to….It’s the only chance we have politically as Christians to have any representation in a new Iraqi government," reportedly said Dr. Carl Moeller, president/CEO of Open Doors USA, which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians.
"I think Christians are probably the number one minority group in Iraq that is embracing the prospect of true democracy," he was quoted as saying by crosswalk.com, a religious Internet website. "The downside for most Christians in Iraq is that there is no free, multi-religion Iraq in the near future. The great fear Christians have is that an extreme Muslim leader will be elected, and then what position will the Christians be in?," he
wondered.
STRIFE WARNINGS
Analysts have also warned there is a danger that the elections will lead to more ethnic strife as some see them as "illegitimate" , including members of the Sunni Muslim minority, who had links to the former Saddam Hussein regime. Sunni representatives say they are unable to vote because of dangers and what they see as the U.S. domination. In addition there is concern that the Shii majority will set up an own Islamic government with little or no considerations for other religious and minority groups.
About 14 million Iraqis were eligible to choose a 275 members of a national assembly, whose key task will be to debate and approve a new constitution. They are also voting for members of 18 provincial assemblies and the autonomous Kurdish parliament in the north. Final official results were expected only with 10 days.
The national assembly will pick a new government to succeed the interim administration now in power, which was formed last year by the United States-led occupation authority, in consultation with the United Nations. Despite worries over the political future of Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush said the election shows that "the momentum of democracy" throughout the Middle East, where autocratic regimes still rule several nations.
"FREEDOM FRIENDS"
"All throughout Iraq this friends of freedom understand the stakes," he said in his weekly radio address Saturday, January 29. "They know what democracy will mean for their country a future pf peace" and a better life for their children, Bush added. He warned that although "terrorist violence will not end with the elections," it will show terrorists that "the Iraqi people reject their ideology of violence and murder."
However the Democratic Party has criticized the Bush administration for allegedly not doing enough to provide adequate security. Those fears were underscored on the eve of the election when insurgents even managed to carry out a rocket attack against the U.S. Embassy, in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing two Americans.
Seven people were arrested following the rocket attack, the US military said. Security concerns and Muslim radicalism has put additional pressure on the Christian community of Iraq, explained Open Doors’ official Moeller.
"The Christian community was 1.5 million people. Today it numbers around 700,000, with about 30 to 40,000 Christians a month fleeing the country – to Syria, to Jordan. It’s a desperate situation for most Christians in Iraq," he told Crosswalk.com.
"Wouldn’t you flee if your church was being bombed and you risked your life just by going to church on Sunday morning? I can’t put myself in their position. Mentally, it’s almost impossible to think about. Yet, we know that God has called out a remnant of believers in Iraq to remain, to remain strong. The Bible says in Revelation 3:2, “Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die.” (With reports from several news sources, as well as Stefan J. Bos, Agnes Bos, and the BosNewsLife News Center)
