Intrigue, power plays as Iraq campaign season starts

Mass graves, war criminals, and Iranian agents: welcome to the campaign trail in Iraq.

Even before he announced his candidacy, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi began using his interim office to kick off his campaign for Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.

Yesterday, Mr. Allawi went public with a formal announcement of his party's list for the elections.

But over the past several days, both Allawi and his deputies have made politically charged announcements - about war-crimes trials, mass graves, and political interference from Iran - calculated to play on Iraqi fears and stir up sentiment against his main competitor.

"One interpretation is that Allawi would make these announcements during the election period because he can make use of them during the campaign season," says Shwan Mahmood, political editor of the independent Kurdish newspaper Hawlati. "I think Allawi is afraid for his political future, and he wants to make use of the influence that he has gained during his governing period to guarantee his future election results for himself."

Yesterday marked the official beginning of the electioneering season in Iraq. It was the final deadline for political parties to register their slates of candidates.

But Allawi grabbed headlines the day before when he announced in his weekly address to Iraq's national assembly that his interim government would begin trials of Saddam Hussein's henchmen for war crimes.

Iraqis, impatient for Saddam's trial to begin, have long grumbled that Allawi's interim government is dragging its feet. But yesterday's announcement that trials of Saddam's top henchmen would begin next week took many by surprise.

Officials said that the trials would start with Ali Hassan Al-Majid, the infamous "Chemical Ali" responsible for poison-gas attacks against Kurds and Shiites.

"This is for election purposes," said Saad Jawad, a professor of political science at Baghdad University. "It's very good propaganda for them if they put him on trial, because he has no supporters. The crimes registered against him are enormous - they cannot be defended."

The interim government's defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, upped the ante yesterday by telling a news conference in Baghdad that the main Shiite slate was an "Iranian list."

The Iranians "are fighting us because we want to build freedom and democracy and they want to build an Islamic dictatorship and have turbaned clerics to rule in Iraq," Mr. Shaalan said.

Shaalan was referring to the United Iraqi Alliance, a list of mainly Shiite candidates that was put together at the behest of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Iraq's preeminent religious figure. The Shiite list - which most Iraqis refer to simply as "Sistani's list" - is widely believed to be the front-runner in the elections so far, so it will be significant competition for Allawi.

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