Juan Cole - June 2, 2005

9 Dead in Tuz Khurmatu Bombing
Deputy Governor of Diyala Assassinated in Baqubah
Poisoned Watermelons

Iraq looked more and more like a macabre horror film on Wednesday, as the Iraqi military announced that someone distributed poisoned watermelon to its troops at a Mosul checkpoint, killing one and making 12 others ill. This according to Deutsche Press Agentur via ash-Sharq al-Awsat. Likewise, 3 children were blown to smithereens in a mortar strike while playing in their yard. Guerrillas launched a rash of a a carbombings Thursday morning. At Baqubah at least 4 are dead, including the deputy governor of Diyala Province. In the city of Tuz Khurmatu a bomb killed 9 Iraqis and wounded 28. In Kirkuk, a carbombing killed two and wounded several others.

Warring Visions of Iraqi Federalism
"Sumer" Rises in South

Al-Hayat says that its sources in Iraq describe an ongoing dispute between the Kurds, who want an Iraqi federalism that gives "states' rights" only to Kurdistan but not to other provinces, and the Shiites, who want a federalism that would apply geographically throughout the country. The Shiites want to create a southern super-province to serve as a counter weight to Kurdistan. Shiite leaders are planning a congress that can establish the instrumentalities for creating the region of "Sumer" in the south, which will consist of 3 consolidated provinces.

Women's Demonstration in Egypt

Women demonstrated in Cairo on Wednesday as part of a general protest by journalists and other oppositionists. They maintain that they were manhandled by Egyptian security forces during a demonstration last week during a popular referendum. The question in the referendum was whether other parties should be able to field candidates to compete with Hosni Mubarak in presidential elections. (In any case, only parties approved by parliament, controlled by Mubarak's party, will be allowed to field presidential candidates. They will exclude the Muslim Brotherhood, the major opposition group in the country). The narrowness of the referendum and the likelihood that it will leave the system unchanged provoked the original demosntrations.