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DUBAI, 9 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - 2005 saw a
number of political watersheds, including national
assembly elections and constitutional referendums.
The contests pitted the country’s three biggest
ethnic-religious groupings – Shi’ites, Sunnis and
Kurds – against one another for domination of the
parliament and government.
The year was also punctuated by constant insurgent
attacks on US and Iraqi troops and a number of major
US-led offensives, particularly in the west of the
country near Iraq’s border with Syria.
JANUARY
January 30: Iraqis go to polls for the first
democratic elections in half a century to elect 275
members of a transitional national assembly. Sunnis,
representing some 20 percent of the population,
largely boycott the vote. Insurgent groups
reportedly warn that they would kill Sunni Muslims
who voted.
FEBRUARY
February 14: The Independent Electoral Commission of
Iraq (IECI) announces the results of the election:
141 seats go to the Shi'ite United Iraq Alliance; 75
to the Kurdistan Alliance; 40 to interim Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi's National Iraqi List; and 5 to
interim President Ghazi Yawar’s independent list.
The remaining 14 seats are won by representatives of
minority groups, such as Turkomans, Christians and
Assyrians. The Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance obtains
an absolute majority in parliament, thanks in part
to support from Shi’ite religious leader Ayatollah
Ali Sistani, ahead of the main Kurdish coalition
formed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
February 28: A car bomb explodes in the mainly
Shi'ite town of Hilla, some 120 km from the capital,
Baghdad, leaving at least 125 people dead and more
than 200 injured. The attack is seen as a response
from insurgents to the election results.
MARCH
March 7: Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shi’ite United
Iraqi Alliance, is chosen as interim prime minister.
The vote is followed by indignation from Sunni
leaders – and intensive insurgent attacks – who
complain of US coalition interference in the
division of parliamentary seats.
March 16: The elected transitional national assembly
meets for the first time amid tight security without
reaching agreement on the formation of a new
government.
APRIL
April 6: Jalal Talabani is chosen as Iraq's new
interim president, the first Kurd to hold such an
exalted post in Iraq's modern history.
April 27: Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, under
enormous pressure from political rivals, forms a
cabinet almost three months after elections.
MAY
May 7: US troops launch an offensive in the city of
al-Qaim, some 320 km west of the capital, against
insurgents linked with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of
al-Qaeda in Iraq, believed to be taking refuge in
the city. The offensive, codenamed “Operation
Matador,” is one of the biggest since militants were
driven from the city of Fallujah by US forces in
late 2004, and results in the displacement of
several thousand civilian residents.
May 23: Prime Minister al-Jaafari announces that the
death penalty would be reinstated as a means of
controlling the ongoing insurgency.
JUNE
June 16: Kurds and Shi’ite leaders agree to include
Sunni representatives in a parliamentary committee
charged with drafting a new constitution in
compensation for the lack of Sunni representation in
the legislature. On the same day, a suicide bomber
kills at least 98 people near a Shi'ite mosque in
the town of Mussayib, near Karbala.
June 17: US-led offensive “Operation Spear” is
launched, the second in the western Anbar
governorate, resulting in over 7,000 families being
displaced to surrounding areas.
June 25: The Iraqi government announces that the
former dictator Saddam Hussein would be charged with
12 counts of crimes against humanity. Accusations
included the execution of more than 145 Iraqis in
1982 in Dujail; the murder of nearly 5,000 people in
the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988; the execution
of key political and religious leaders during his 35
years in power; the killing and deportation of more
than 10,000 members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe;
the 1991 suppression of a Shi'ite uprising in
southern Iraq; and the illegal occupation of Kuwait
in 1991.
AUGUST
August 28: A final draft of the constitution is
ratified by parliament after weeks of wrangling. The
13-day delay in approving the new charter raises
tensions between political groupings. Sunni Arabs
reject the new constitution, calling it
“illegitimate.”
SEPTEMBER
September 1: Nearly 1,300 people are killed and
1,500 injured when Shi’ite pilgrims stampede on a
bridge spanning the Tigris River in northern Baghdad
after rumours of a suicide bomber.
On the same day, the first death sentences in Iraq
since US-led forces invaded the country in April
2003 are handed down in the city of Kut, 172 km
southeast of Baghdad, to four men accused of
kidnapping and rape. The death penalty, used against
criminals in the era of former Iraqi strongman
Saddam Hussein, was abolished by US forces in 2003,
but reinstated in August 2004 during the rule of
former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
September 10: US and Iraqi forces launch an
offensive in the northern city of Talafar, causing
over 10,000 families to flee the city.
September 14: Al-Zarqawi declares all-out war on the
majority Shi’ite community. A suicide bomber kills
128 and wounds over 150 in a crowded Shi'ite
district of Baghdad while gunmen kill 17 people
north of the city.
September 17: The number of displaced from Talafar
rises from an estimated 10,000 to 20,000.
September 18: A final draft of the constitution is
sent for printing after weeks of disagreement
between political leaders over various sticking
points. The document is sent to the United Nations
Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which prints
and distributes five million copies in advance of an
October referendum.
September 26: Hundreds of families are reported
fleeing the city of Samara, some 120 km north of the
capital, following a defence ministry announcement
that preparations are underway for a coalition
offensive against insurgents there.
September 29: 98 people are killed in three
coordinated car bomb attacks in the mixed Shi'ite-Sunni
town of Balad.
OCTOBER
October 1: A US offensive in the city of al-Qaim,
western Iraq leaves more than 3,000 families
displaced.
October 5: Nearly 1,000 families flee their homes in
Haditha, 220 km west of Baghdad, following the
launch of an offensive against insurgents.
October 13: The Iraqi parliament introduces a series
of last-minute amendments to the constitution aimed
at winning support from the country’s largely
hostile Sunni community. The amendments dilute the
constitution’s commitment to federalism and permit
the revision of the document by a new parliament to
be elected in December.
October 15: 78 percent of Iraqis endorse the draft
constitution in a national referendum relatively
free of violence, the government said. The IECI
announces that 69 percent of Iraq’s 14 million
registered voters turned out to cast ballots,
considered an improvement on the 58-percent turnout
seen in January’s parliamentary election.
October 19: Saddam Hussein and seven former
lieutenants go on trial for the 1982 massacre of 148
Shi’ites from the town of Dujail, north of the
capital. Hussein supporters in the Sunni community
demonstrate in the streets, demanding that US-led
forces be put in the dock instead.
NOVEMBER
November 5: The IECI announces that 228 coalitions
and political entities are registered to participate
in Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for 15
December. Unlike in the last vote, Sunni leaders
pledge their full participation.
November 6: The Japanese government agrees to write
off 80 percent of debt owed it by Iraq, giving local
reconstruction efforts a badly needed boost.
November 8: Security Council resolution 1637 extends
the term of multinational forces in Iraq “until the
end of next year,” allowing for “a review of that
mandate at any time, no later than mid-June 2006, or
for its termination, at the request of the Iraqi
Government.” The decision is badly received by
Iraqis who accuse the government of being under the
thumb of the US.
November 13: 173 detainees are found by US troops in
an interior ministry building in Baghdad, many
bearing signs of malnutrition and mistreatment. In
response, Interim Prime Minister al-Jaafari orders
an investigation into allegations of abuse.
November 20: Thousands of families from the town of
Talafar, some 80 km east of the northern city of
Mosul, begin receiving monetary damages for losses
incurred during US-led military operations in
September.
November 22: Participants in a conference aimed at
“Iraqi reconciliation” reach an agreement in the
Egyptian capital, Cairo. The final document to
emerge from the conference includes a request for
the withdrawal of foreign forces conditional on the
building of well-trained and sufficiently equipped
Iraqi armed forces.
DECEMBER
December 6: The trial of Saddam Hussein is denounced
as unfair by defence lawyers, due to the use of
anonymous witnesses.
December 12: Iraqi expatriates in 15 countries, as
well as prisoners and hospital patients in Iraq,
began voting ahead of parliamentary elections to be
held on 15 December.
December 14: CIVIC, a Washington-based humanitarian
organisation, urges the US government to count and
identify civilian casualties of the US-led invasion
and occupation of Iraq, following statements by US
President George Bush that 30,000 Iraqi civilians
had been killed.
A report on civilian casualties in Iraq from 2003 to
2005, published by non-governmental organisation
Iraq Body Count in association with the Oxford
Research Group, documents the killing of 30,892
civilians in the first two years of the occupation.
Some 30 percent of these were killed in the initial
invasion. UNAMI reports between 20,000 and 30,000
civilian deaths.
December 15: Despite threats of violence, Iraqis
descended on polling stations to choose the
country’s first full-term, democratically-elected
parliament. Nearly 200,000 security personnel
maintain order while more than 120,000 independent
observers monitor the elections, according to
officials.
December 17: The IECI announces a 70 percent turnout
for the elections, but says 200 reported cases of
fraud could delay final results. Violations in 18
polling stations countrywide are reported by IECI
officials who launch an investigation.
December 20: Sunni Arab parties claim the results of
the parliamentary contests are inaccurate after
initial results show nearly 59 percent of the vote
going to the Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance. Sunnis
represent about 20 percent of the Iraqi population,
while Shi’ites are generally recognised as
comprising about 60 percent.
December 29: UN Special Representative for Iraq
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi welcomed a decision by the
International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) to
establish a team of assessors, including two
representatives from the Arab League, to conduct a
review of its interim report, released on 15
December.
December 30: The IECI announces that final results
of parliamentary elections would be released on or
around 15 January 2006.
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