Interview with younadam Kanna of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM)

al-Sharq al-Awsat
Damascus
December 5, 2004

Elections should be held in entire Iraq or there should be no Elections

In the opinion of Mr. Yonadam Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrians Democratic
Movement, it would be a mistake to hold the elections on its scheduled date (January 30,
2005) if security was not established first. To have the election, he stated, is associated
with the presence of a safe and appropriate political environment that allows all people
who make the Iraqi society to participate in the elections. If security was not achieved by
election time, then it is a mistake to have the elections. He added that Iraq is one electoral
district and that we cannot have elections in one region without the other because
representation in that case will not be balanced. Therefore, we even are going to have the
elections in all regions of Iraq or not have it at all.

Mr. Kanna stated that we are not with the remaining of foreign forces in Iraq; however, we
cannot ask these forces to leave Iraq now without s substitute security forces to replace
them. The departure now will leave a vacuum that could cause the tragedy and disaster of
a civil war. Iraqis need the coalition forces today and we, as sovereign Iraq, will decide
when these forces should leave. We will ask for the departure of the coalition forces when
Iraq establishes its army, security police (inside the cities and its highways), and at Iraqi
borders. Only then, the lingering of the occupation, which by the way we do not refer to it
as such, is no longer needed.

In connection with the position of certain national and patriotic Iraqi political groups, which
are not part of the political system, from the elections, Mr. Kanna stated that we as Iraqi
parliament, government, and political organizations are negotiating with these groups. He
stated that we are trying to convince these groups to join us in the political system where
there are many within and without the government that are calling for the postponement of
the elections and to prepare for the suitable environment around which elections could be
held. We hope that these groups will share with us in rebuilding the new Iraq and the
writing of the new permanent constitution.