The Second National Opinion Poll in Iraq
JNV Anti-War Briefing 57 (23 March 2004)

Posted: 08 April 2004

THE HUNGER FOR DEMOCRACY
The majority of Iraqi people are desperate for national elections to institute a new democratically-elected government. When confronted with a wide variety of possible political arrangements in a national poll partly-sponsored by the BBC, 72.2% of Iraqis strongly agreed that there should be an Iraqi democracy, while a further 13.7% agreed somewhat, making ‘democracy’ the most popular choice.

When asked by Oxford Research International in Feb. 2004 to choose between just three political options, 48.5% of Iraqis chose ‘democracy’, 27.5% went for a ’strong leader’, and only 20.5% for an ‘Islamic state’. When asked who should be in charge, 55.3% of Iraqis said the country should be run by ‘democrats’; 27.3% said by a ’strong leader’; and only 13.7% said by ‘religious politicians’. (Full results of the ORI/BBC poll are available in pdf format from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3514504.stm.)

THE INCONSISTENT DEMAND FOR DEMOCRACY
The polls have shifted around a bit on this issue since Apr. 2003. A poll in Baghdad in July 2003, carried out for the Spectator and Channel 4 News, found that the most favoured political set-up was ‘British/American style democracy with various political parties competing openly for power’ at 36% (the only other real contender was ‘Islamic rule, but tempered to modern ideals of justice and punishment’ at 26%). (Excel database available from http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/07/week3/16poll.html.)

Then in Aug. 2003, in a poll outside Baghdad, while 38.2% of Iraqis polled said democracy could work well in Iraq, 50.2% said ‘democracy is a western way of doing things and it will not work here.’ (FT, 11 Sept., p.11) However, the first national opinion poll, carried out by ORI, found that ‘90.3 per cent of interviewees said they somewhat agreed or strongly agreed that the country needed an Iraqi democracy.’ (AP, 2 Dec. 2003)

The Second National Opinion Poll in Iraq
JNV Anti-War Briefing 56 (19 March 2004)

Posted: 08 April 2004

IRAQ REJECTS THE OCCUPATION
The majority of Iraqi people oppose the presence of US/UK occupation forces in their country and do not believe that the US and UK should be involved in restoring public security or holding elections in Iraq. So says the second nationwide opinion poll carried out since the war, a poll commissioned by the BBC and carried out in February 2004 by ‘Oxford Research International’. (Full results of the poll are available in pdf format from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3514504.stm.)

51.2% of Iraqis oppose the presence of the US/UK occupation forces (31.3% strongly). Only 39.5% support them.

66.3% of people do not have confidence in the US and UK occupation forces. Only 25.3% do have some confidence. 62.2% do not have confidence in the US/UK Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Only 27.9% have some confidence in the CPA.

Only 12.7% of Iraqis think the occupation Forces or the United States should be involved in regaining public security in Iraq. 49.5% think it should be an Iraqi government or the Iraqi people.

Only 7.4% of Iraqis think the occupation forces/the US should hold the elections for a new Iraqi national government. 8.7% think the Governing Council should do it. 23.9% think it should be the Iraqi people; 18.2% go for ‘the Iraqi government’.

What kind of regime does Iraq need now? 31.6% opted for the CPA. 57.3% said Iraq did not need the CPA (36.9 strongly).

By Anna Bachmann
Voices in the Wilderness

Just after my arrival in Iraq several weeks ago, I located the new Iraqi Ministry of Environment and talked to Dr. Ali Azziz, the Ministry Advisor. I spoke with him about my interest in looking at the issues of Depleted Uranium and radiation exposure at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility just south of Baghdad (this facility was looted after the war because the U.S. Military failed to secure it. Many barrels of yellow cake uranium and other materials were dumped at the site and the barrels removed to be used by community members for things like water and food storage).

Dr. Azziz told me that if I was interested in Radiation issues and Tuwaitha, I should talk to Dr. Bushra at the Radiation Center in Jadryia neighborhood of Baghdad. I have since visited Dr. Bushra and her facility about a half a dozen times and each visit opens up completely new questions.

by Jo Wilding

I expect everyone knows by now about the kidnapping of three Japanese civilians and the threat to burn them alive unless the Japanese government withdraws its troops from Iraq. Anxious, everyone huddled round the satellite TV in one of the apartments. The tape from the kidnappers showed them crouched, blindfolded, knives to their throats.

“It’s them!”

Nayoko used to bring food for the street kids and wash their clothes for them, the boys who later stayed in the shelter in Bab a Sherji and now live in the Kurdish House. She wasn’t with an NGO at all, just an individual who raised some money to come over and help the kids and did it, learnt some Arabic, quietly got on with it. As a result no one, no embassy, no organisation, knows anything about her. The Japanese embassy thought all three of them had just arrived.

And it makes no difference, of course it makes no difference, that I know them; it makes no difference to the terror on her face, the young woman who used to help the street kids on Abu Nawas, the man who was investigating depleted uranium contamination. It makes no difference that their faces are familiar, that I used to see them at the internet on Karrada Dakhil and wander down the street with them. But it feels horrible.