Winks Blog

Death Count Update: 442 Killed in last 18 days

In the last 18 days, at least 442 people have been killed as the insurgents try to scare voters away from the polls. Most of the deaths have been caused by suicide car bombs, roadside bombs and drive-by shootings. In addition to this figure, several dead bodies over the same time period were found dumped in and around Bagdhad.

The official 10 pm - 6am, 4 day cerfew/national 4-day holiday is now in effect in Iraq. Schools and Government offices were closed in front of the Saturday vote for the new national referendum. As of Friday, Iraqi's borders will also be closed. Car travel between provinces will also be stopped during this time.

This cerfew is designed to "Protect the voters". As we learned from the last election, these extraordinary security steps will likely protect the voters somewhat during the vote. The last vote aprox 40 people were killed when a man detonated himself in a sgroup of people going by bus to vote.

As we have learned, however, this "Security" is only temporary for voters. Several thousand Iraqi citizens have been killed since the April vote (I unfortunately do not have the total but will try to find it). Just look over my blog and you will see most of death highlights between that vote and this vote. I will do my best to try to find the death statistics and report them here.
It is likely, at this point that the vote for the referendum will pass due to a last minute deal made which will give Sunnis the possibility of a chance to add an ammendment to the constitution once the new Parliment is installed. This last minute negotiation was a clever move by Shiites, Kurds and Americans to in effect split the vote among Sunnis to avoid a "NO" vote and thus a trip back to the drawing board. This last minute negotiation deal was sealed by the National Assembly without a vote. Only 157 parliamentarians were present, and parliament had earlier announced a recess of several weeks. Was it that they could not muster a convincing number of votes for the constitution under these circumstances?

It will be interesting to me what might occur, should a split become a reality. Sunnis who vote "No", or don't vote will be extremely angry towards Sunnis who vote "Yes". Sunnis who vote "Yes", are not guaranteed anything, except a "Chance" in the future to get what they want. We'll see what kind of in-fighting might occur. This vote will likely inflame the anger, and that anger is extremely likely to ignite the most hard-core and determined killers. I would expect the death numbers to be very high between October 15th and the December Parliment election.

I have to say this was a brilliant move by the majority to split the vote. Bravo. Since the parliment didn't get their way and decided to actually allow non-registered voters to vote (See Oct. 5th Blog), they had to come up with something that would get them the result they wanted. Feed the Sunni minority a muffin of hope, get your result, and all will be good. Too funny. We'll see what happens in the months following the new Parliment as to whether or not the divided Iraq's will be able to work together to ammend the constitution into something that will make Iraq a united nation. (Laffing to myself).

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 9:04 AM