Thread: Iraqis protest in support of 'Saddam' candidates ban

Iraqis protest in support of 'Saddam' candidates ban

Hundreds of Shiites staged demonstrations Thursday in Iraq's southern cities of Najaf and Basra in support of a decision to bar election candidates linked to ****uted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Election organisers have banned from the March 7 vote more than 500 candidates said to be members of Saddam's outlawed Baath political party or who formerly worked for his once deadly military and intelligence network.

In Shiite-majority Najaf, 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Baghdad, hundreds marched and some held banners that proclaimed: "Baathists and Nazis are two faces of the same coin," and "The return of the Baath is the return of attacks and prison," an AFP correspondent said.

The demonstration was organised by an association devoted to victims and prisoners of Saddam's toppled Sunni-minority regime.

"We ask the Baghdad government and local authorities to punish the Baath and its representatives who continue to belong to the party," said demonstrator Salah Al-Mussawi.

In Basra, Iraq's sprawling southernmost mainly-Shiite city, around 1,000 protesters took to the streets, some holding banners that said "Shame on Baathists" and "The Baathists of yesterday are the MPs of today."

The demonstrators in Najaf and Basra also demanded the lifting of parliamentary immunity for Dhafer Al-Ani, a leading Sunni MP who they said was an apologist for the Baath party. Ani, from the National Concord bloc, is among the 511 candidates excluded from taking part in the vote.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...ndidates%20ban