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U.N. chief, in Iraq, hails peaceful local vote
Fri Feb 6, 2009 9:23am EST
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By Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Iraq's largely peaceful elections during a visit to Baghdad on Friday, but said the war-weary country had much more to do before it attains lasting stability.
Ban, in an unannounced visit to Baghdad, where the United Nations suffered one of its greatest tragedies when its offices were blown up 5-1/2 years ago, met Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a minority Kurd, at his heavily fortified home.
"I believe you have come such a long way, but still you have to go a far way to say you will fully be able to enjoy genuine freedom and security and prosperity," said Ban, sitting in a gilded chair alongside a smiling Talabani.
Ban's second official visit to Baghdad followed a trip to Afghanistan, another battlefield in the U.S. "war on terrorism" launched by former President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, and to India and Pakistan.
Saturday's provincial elections in Iraq were the most peaceful since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 unleashed years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgency.
Ban's last visit to Baghdad in March 2007 was jarred by a rocket that struck a building near where he and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were giving a news conference.
After meeting Talabani, Ban held talks with Maliki in the secured Green Zone in central Baghdad.
The United Nations operates under heavy security and maintains a relatively low profile in Iraq, a legacy of a truck bomb that destroyed its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003, killing U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and other U.N. staff.
Iraq in early 2009 is a very different place. Attacks have dropped dramatically across the country and Iraqi forces are assuming ever-greater control of security ahead of a U.S. withdrawal that must take place by the end of 2011.
"NATIONALISTIC COURSE"
The elections last week to select leaders in 14 of 18 Iraqi provinces were held without a single major militant attack, seen as a significant accomplishment in itself.
"I'm here to convey best wishes from the United Nations for all the successful achievements you made during this last election ... Mabruk to all the Iraqi people and government," Ban said, using the Arabic word for "congratulations."
Preliminary results released on Thursday showed that allies of Maliki, whose law-and-order message resonated with voters, scored spectacular gains across Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim south.
Elsewhere in the country, once dominant Sunni Arabs who boycotted Iraq's last provincial polls in 2005 regained political power in areas where their exclusion from local politics had fueled resentment and a lingering insurgency.
Maliki said the election had altered Iraq's political map. "In some areas, the change was fundamental. The trend seen in this election was support for a nationalist course rather than sectarian or ethnic," Maliki said. Continued...
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