Some 20,000 demonstrators converged on the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah to protest US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-Saddam Hussein administration.
The meeting in Nasiriyah was the first since the launch of the war on March 20 and was billed as a major step forward in the search for a new Iraqi leadership. But the man tipped to become Iraq's next leader, Ahmad Chalabi, head of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, was not due to attend.
Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim opposition group was also boycotting the talks, amid distrust over the US role and division over who should lead Iraq. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim told a press conference here that "we will not participate at the meeting in Nasiriyah, and we have told that to the Americans and to other countries."
"What is most important in our view is independence," he said. "We refuse to put ourselves under the thumb of the Americans or any other country, because that is not in the Iraqis' interests."
Chalabi, who has insisted he is not a candidate for a post in the interim administration to be run by retired US general Jay Garner, planned to send a representative.
Dozens of representatives from Iraq's opposition groups, including those formerly in exile, were said to be invited although no official list was given.
The talks sparked a demonstration estimated by journalists to number some 20,000 people, led by religious figures. "Yes to freedom ... Yes to Islam ... No to America, No to Saddam," the crowd chanted in the center of the city.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
