Violent cities could be omitted, general says
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq remains on course to hold landmark elections in January, but violence could force authorities to exclude hot spots such as the western city of Fallujah from voting, a top US general said yesterday.
Lieutenant General Thomas F. Metz, operations chief of more than 150,000 mostly US troops in Iraq, said anti-American militancy in places such as Fallujah would not derail the national elections. A contingency plan, Metz said, is to bypass Fallujah, and perhaps other violent enclaves, and concentrate on ensuring electoral security in Baghdad and other population centers where the hostility is lower.
''We'd have elections before we let one place like Fallujah stop [national] elections," said Metz, the number two US military official in Iraq. ''The rest of the country can go on about a process that heads right for an election."
Still, Metz cautioned that the participation of Iraq's three largest cities -- Baghdad, Mosul in the north, and Basra in the south -- was essential to any election.
Metz's statements are among the strongest to date by US or Iraqi officials conceding that the security situation is so perilous that some areas may not be pacified in time for elections. While bypassing some cities could allow officials to stick to their timetable, doing so could detract from the election's credibility, foment discontent in Iraq, and leave other countries reluctant to acknowledge any government chosen in the vote.
Much of central and western Iraq remains a hostile zone for US and Iraqi forces because of a Sunni Muslim-led insurgency. In the capital and to the south, a Shi'ite militia that launched bloody uprisings in the spring and summer has yet to be dismantled. In August alone, more than 1,000 US troops were injured and at least 63 killed.
The elections scheduled for January are the next major milestone for Iraq as the nation follows a US- and UN-backed plan for its transition to democracy. The country became sovereign under a US-backed interim government on June 28, almost 15 months after Saddam Hussein's regime fell.
How to provide security at some 9,000 projected polling places is among the challenges facing Iraqi and Western officials trying to craft an election blueprint for the nation of 24 million.
''There's no scenario being ruled out," said one US official in Baghdad. ''The idea is that people in one or two cities cannot be allowed to veto an election."
One possible option, officials say, is to allow voters from places such as Fallujah to cast their ballots at polling places in designated safe zones outside their cities.
US-led forces, Metz said, have also not ruled out military action before the vote to win back control in Fallujah and Samarra, a city 60 miles north of Baghdad that is essentially controlled by insurgents.
By December, he said, authorities said they hope more than 200,000 Iraqi police and troops will be providing primary security for much of the country, with US-led multinational forces as a backup. Intensive training of Iraqi forces is underway nationwide.
''I don't think today you could hold elections," Metz said. ''Our goal is to get ourselves to local control . . . so that we can conduct an election in January that is recognized internally and externally as a legitimate election."
Excluding polling booths from an entire city or cities, though, might be perilous. The plan would probably alienate those who are excluded from voting -- most likely minority Sunni Muslims, who have spearheaded the insurgency in several Iraqi cities. It could also detract from the international legitimacy of the critical vote.
Yet skipping some dangerous areas, analysts say, may be better than delaying national elections long demanded by many Iraqis.
The nation's preeminent Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, used his moral authority to press for elections as soon as possible following the fall of Hussein's regime. He ultimately signed off on a compromise plan scheduling elections for no later than January. Aides have said the date is firm.
