http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01202004/nation_w/130791.aspBAGHDAD, Iraq -- As many as 100,000 Iraqis marched peacefully through the center of Baghdad on Monday in a show of support for a revered Shiite cleric opposing the Bush administration's plans for the transfer of sovereignty.
The march was a powerful display of solidarity behind the cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, at a time when leaders of the Shiites, who account for more than 60 percent of the population, are beginning to exercise their enormous political influence over American policy here. Almost as many people attended the protest as there are American soldiers in Iraq.
The demonstration sent an unmistakable message to senior American and Iraqi officials, who were at the United Nations on Monday discussing with officials there the resistance to the American plan to transfer power through indirect, caucus-style elections. Demands from al-Sistani for direct elections of a transitional assembly before the turnover of power June 30 have forced American officials to turn to the United Nations in an effort to legitimize their proposal.
A representative of the ayatollah said in an interview that the cleric still insisted on direct elections and wanted the United Nations to monitor the process.
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