WP: Iraq Militias Push Voter Sign-Up

[Pirate Smile]

Iraq Militias Push Voter Sign-Up
Shiite, Sunni Factions Promote Particpation on Charter Draft

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 22, 2005; Page A11

BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 -- Two major armed factions opposed to Iraq's still unfinished constitution on Sunday ordered their followers to register for an upcoming vote on the new charter, with one faction urging a vote against it and the other telling supporters to wait for further orders. "Rejecting the constitution will defeat the American plan in Iraq," Ansar al-Sunna, the most prominent Sunni insurgent movement to join the call for voter registration, said in a statement. Voting amounts to "jihad against the Americans," it said.

The rebellious Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who leads the other faction, told his followers to register ahead of the Sept. 1 deadline but to "wait for our order to come later on whether to vote or not." Sadr issued his statement after residents of the Shiite holy city of Najaf asked what they should do.

Many Sunnis, including moderates, oppose provisions in the draft constitution that could allow a strong Shiite federal state in the southern part of the country. A mobilization of Sadr's followers against the document could lead to its defeat. If two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the charter, the constitution will fail.

Last week, Iraqi political leaders, unable to resolve several sticking points, pushed back their original Aug. 15 deadline for completing the constitution by one week. On Sunday, Shiite and Kurdish leaders met in Baghdad's concrete-walled Green Zone to work out remaining differences over several issues, including oil revenues, ahead of their new deadline on Monday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082100158.html

[baby_bear]

1. What defines an "insurgent"?

For example, if a country invaded the U.S. and we fought back, would we be called insurgents?

I ask this in all seriousness, because I am not seeing a distinction in the press between Iraqi Sunnis who don't appreciate the American occupation and people from other countries who are coming in to the country to fight the occupation. Are the Iraqis who are fighting against the occupation really insurgents? It doesn't sit right, intuitively, with me.

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