Winds of Change.NET: Good news from Iraq, 1 August 2005:
"Sunni leaders, meanwhile, are calling for their people not to repeat the mistake of boycotting the election:
Some 300 leaders of Iraq's alienated Sunni Arab former elite called Thursday [14 July] for participation in the next elections, due in December, after a boycott of January polls left the community largely unrepresented in parliament.
'I'm calling on my brothers ... to participate in the political process,' Adnan al-Dulaimi, spokesman for the General Conference of Sunnis, told participants at a Baghdad meeting.
His comments were echoed by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Nima, a leading Sunni cleric from the main northern city of Mosul.
'We can blame ourselves from staying away at the last elections. It was a big mistake,' he said.
'Participating (in the next elections) means we shall exist. If we don't participate there will be no existence for us.'
A leader of the hardline Salafist movement, Sheikh Zakaria Mohi Issa al-Timimi, also endorsed taking part.
'We will be very active in our participation in the elections in order to mitigate the damage inflicted on Sunnis today,' he said."
"Sunni leaders, meanwhile, are calling for their people not to repeat the mistake of boycotting the election:
Some 300 leaders of Iraq's alienated Sunni Arab former elite called Thursday [14 July] for participation in the next elections, due in December, after a boycott of January polls left the community largely unrepresented in parliament.
'I'm calling on my brothers ... to participate in the political process,' Adnan al-Dulaimi, spokesman for the General Conference of Sunnis, told participants at a Baghdad meeting.
His comments were echoed by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Nima, a leading Sunni cleric from the main northern city of Mosul.
'We can blame ourselves from staying away at the last elections. It was a big mistake,' he said.
'Participating (in the next elections) means we shall exist. If we don't participate there will be no existence for us.'
A leader of the hardline Salafist movement, Sheikh Zakaria Mohi Issa al-Timimi, also endorsed taking part.
'We will be very active in our participation in the elections in order to mitigate the damage inflicted on Sunnis today,' he said."
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