Thousands of soldiers and police were deployed in Iraqi cities on Monday to prepare for a nationwide security clampdown in the run-up to Saturday’s referendum on a new Constitution. Extra patrols and checkpoints appeared in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, as efforts began to ban movement between provinces and car travel, and close foreign borders before polling day.
Emergency services braced themselves for an increase in shootings and bombings by insurgents who have threatened to attack polling centres and anyone associated with the referendum.
Baghdad’s main ambulance depot requested an extra 24 vehicles from nearby towns, but by Monday only 11 had arrived. Staff at the capital’s Yarmook hospital morgue said the surge in violence, which has killed 320 people in the past fortnight, is likely to escalate.
”I think we’re going to have more bodies,” said Naji Chechan, the morgue director.
Compounding the anxiety is uncertainty about the referendum’s outcome and the aftermath, with analysts divided over whether it will stabilise the country or pave the way for full-scale civil war.
At least 12 people were killed on Monday, including three police officers and three civilians who died when a suicide bomber detonated a device at a checkpoint. A curfew and a four-day national holiday have been declared, starting on Thursday. Borders, airports and ports will be closed.
The Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, said more than 70 000 Iraqi police and soldiers will enforce the clampdown. The American-led foreign troops will keep a low profile to enhance the fledgling Iraqi state’s shaky authority. A similar atmosphere prevailed in the run-up to elections in January. The relative success of Iraqi forces — dozens rather than hundreds died on voting day — was eclipsed when insurgents increased attacks afterwards.
About five million copies of the draft Constitution are being distributed with government food rations, according to Iraqi officials, but anecdotal evidence suggests many areas will not receive them before Saturday. The government and pro-Constitution groups have plastered cities with posters and blitzed television networks with adverts exhorting a yes-vote.
”Iraq is living in an important phase in its historic march towards total sovereignty,” said one newspaper insert. The ruling Kurdish and Shi’ite alliance, which wrote the text, expects a sizeable national majority to overwhelm opposition from Sunni Arabs.
The almost festive atmosphere in Kurdistan and parts of the Shi’ite south contrasted with a sense of foreboding in Baghdad and Sunni areas that are hostile to federalism and other clauses. Sunnis can block the charter by mustering two-thirds majorities in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces. But Sunni parties are disorganised and some insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq have threatened to kill participants.
If the Constitution is passed, elections will be held in December to elect a government. If it fails, the elections will install another interim administration to draft a new charter. — Guardian Unlimited Â