Shiite leader travels to marshlands скачать в хорошем качестве

Shiite leader travels to marshlands

(11 May 2003) 1. Crowds of people running along road between Basra and Nasiriyah 2. Crowds of men running, following car 3. Car driving by, view of cleric inside car 4. Men chanting 5. Crowds of men surrounding car of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim 6. Pan right of gathered crowds holding up signs 7. Close up of man jumping and chanting 8. Various of crowds pushing forward 9. Crowds surrounding convoy of cars 10. Cleric trying to walk to podium amongst crowds 11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of SCIRI: "We need complete independence. We need an Iraqi governor ruling the Iraqi people, through which they would run their own affairs, and they are capable of that, God willing. We don't accept a foreign military ruler, we do not accept a local military ruler, we do not accept an imposed government." 12. Crowds chanting around convoy of white cars 13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of SCIRI: "We say to the Americans, to the English and the Europeans, we say you Americans, would you accept an English ruler to come and rule you, even though the English ruler would speak the same language as yours and is of the same race as you, the same culture, the same civilisation, I asked the Americans 'would you accept it' and they said 'no, we wouldn't accept it'. So how can we accept a foreign ruler whose culture is different from ours, whose language is different from ours, and of a different race. Why should we?" 14. Pan of rally STORYLINE The leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein was welcomed by thousands of followers in the city of Nasiriyah on Sunday. Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, fled Iraq more than two decades ago after 19 of his family members were killed during Saddam's regime. He had lived in exile in Iran and under protection of its Shiite religious leaders since 1980. But on Saturday, Al-Hakim returned home to Iraq, and to an emotional welcome by tens of thousands of his followers. At a rally in the southern city of Basra, he called for Iraq to become an Islamic state - but condemned religious extremism. He also said Iraq must be governed by Iraqis, not foreigners. The ayatollah repeated these calls in Nasiriyah, telling the crowd Iraq needed "complete independence". The Shiite sect of Islam, a minority in the Islamic world, comprises about 60 percent of Iraq's population. It was persecuted and oppressed under Saddam's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime. Iraqi Shiites are Arabs, not Persians like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi identity. During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, they did not rise up against Saddam. Al-Hakim's group, whose English acronym is SCIRI, wants Iraq's future to be governed by Islamic law. He has said in the past that SCIRI seeks to "realise the will of the Iraqi people", rebuild the country and establish good relationships with neighbours. The Bush administration is wary of any Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq. It is particularly jittery about the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shiite clerics. Washington has accused Tehran - which gave al-Hakim refuge for so long - of meddling in Iraqi affairs. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...