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KLMNO THE WORLD At least 43 killed in Baghdad in attacks aimed at Shiite pilgrims by Leila Fadel and Jinan Hussein


baghdad — At least 43 people were killed and 169 wounded in attacks across the capital Wednesday as hundreds of thou- sands of Shiite Muslims walked to a shrine where a revered holy figure is buried, part of the latest push by militants to destabilize the nation at a time of political uncertainty. The worst attack, in the Sunni


Muslim neighborhood of Adha- miyah, killed at least 28 and wounded at least 68 when a man blew himself up in a crowd of pil- grims heading to the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, accord-


ing to Iraqi security forces. The incidents occurred as po- litical negotiations slowly contin- ue for a new government four months after Iraq’s parliamenta- ry


elections. Violence has


dropped significantly since the height of the sectarian fighting that erupted in 2006, but some worry it will increase as the U.S. military draws down to 50,000 troops in the country by Sept. 1. Iraqi security officers, promi- nent buildings and government officials are targeted almost every day. In the past month, at least 135 people were killed and 459 people were wounded in the cap- ital alone, police said. Mohammed al-Shurtee was distributing ice Wednesday to the


Shiite pilgrims walking through Adhamiyah to cross the Bridge of the Imams into Kadhimiyah, where the shrine is located, when a blast ripped through throngs waiting at a checkpoint a few feet away.


Body parts were strewn on the


streets. He said he could hear the screams of the wounded. “They were torn into little


pieces,” said Shurtee, who is a Sunni. “We opened our houses and our mosque for the people. Everyone was terrified.” Shurtee and others from the Sunni neighborhood helped pull the wounded into trucks before ambulances arrived. As soon as the blast occurred, security forces randomly detained Sunni men,


he said. “I can’t shake the image of the dead people on the ground,” said Shurtee, whose son was killed in a car bombing in 2006 and whose brother was slain in sectarian violence. “These poor people.” In 2005, at least 900 pilgrims were killed in a stampede on the same bridge, after rumors of a suicide bomber frightened the crowd. This year’s pilgrimage was the


focus of attacks despite height- ened security measures that in- cluded tens of thousands of secu- rity personnel on the streets. Shi- ites walk to the shrine from across the country. Five other explosions across the capital killed at least 14 pil-


grims and wounded scores of oth- ers. Also on Wednesday, a man driving a car blew himself up when he was stopped by police in the western suburb of Abu Ghraib. In addition to the driver, one person was killed and four others were wounded. Pilgrims were also targeted


Tuesday, when at least seven were killed. The path of the pilgrimage on


Wednesday was lighted, and tents were set up to serve water, food, tea and medication to the pilgrims. Unarmed men in civil- ian clothes, followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, stood among the pilgrims and searched them one by one. In west-central Baghdad, an


explosion tore through one of the tents, killing three people and wounding at least 35 others. Blood stained the road as men worked to take the tent down and clean away the rubble. They blamed the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. “We’re so tired,” said Moham- med Sabah, 25. He lost a friend in the attack. Sabah had already lost a brother and cousin. “They want to bring the sectarian fighting back. We want to look to the fu- ture. But we just want to know what they want.”


fadell@washpost.com


Hussein is a special correspondent. Special correspondent K.I. Ibrahim contributed to this report.


THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010


KYODO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS


Mayo Shono, a singer-turned-politician, harmonized with a guitar-strumming supporter in Tokyo on June 24, the start of the official campaign period.


YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


Sunday’s parliamentary elections will be a major test for Prime Minister Naoto Kan.


CHICO HARLAN/THE WASHINGTON POST


First-time candidate Yukiko Tokai passes out placards in a Tokyo shopping district. Her campaign van plies the city’s streets all day long.


In Japanese campaigns, it’s all over but the shouting Prohibited by law from advertising on TV or using the Web, candidates take to streets with noisy tactics — but many voters are covering their ears


by Chico Harlan in tokyo


F


irst-time politician Yukiko Tokai wants voters to know her name before Sunday’s


parliamentary elections, but Ja- pan’s straitjacket campaign laws forbid her to knock on doors, up- date her Web site or advertise on television.


So she reaches out to voters the


Japanese way, blaring her name 12 hours a day with a megaphone mounted atop her campaign van. The ear-splitting racket has been a mainstay of Japanese poli- tics for years. But it seems the Japanese public has had just about enough. Polls show that people are weary of politics and that half of voters do not support any political party. Now, as elec- tion offices receive complaints about noise pollution and news- papers criticize the ban on candi- dates’ use of the Internet, there appears to be a deepening divide between those who hold the


megaphones and those forced to listen.


“I don’t think this is the best


way to do campaigning,” Tokai, who is backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, said in an in- terview on a busy Tokyo street corner. “But this is our situation. Under the current circumstances, we have no other options.” In be- tween answering questions, she shouted her name and party affil- iation over and over on a screech- ing bullhorn. Japan’s Public Offices Election


Law regulates almost every as- pect of a campaign. The law lim- its how many people can enter a campaign van. It limits the size of a paper lantern outside the candi- date’s headquarters. It forbids the offering of food and drink at ral- lies. The restrictions have persist- ed, analysts say, because they make it hard for new politicians to generate widespread atten- tion; they’re incumbent-friendly, and incumbents don’t generally change laws that help them. Later this year, parliament


plans to revisit a bill that would loosen restrictions on Internet usage. In the meantime, candi- dates are required to maintain Web silence. On June 23, one day before the official campaign pe- riod, Tokai’s 1,950 Twitter follow- ers received 47 separate messages from her. Since then, they’ve re- ceived zero. “It’s really frustrating,” Tokai said. “If I was able to access Twit- ter or a blog, I could send messag- es more effectively. I could talk about my policies or my person- ality.”


She has told her Twitter follow-


ers that she will “tweet again” af- ter she is elected. In the meantime, she and other candidates fire up their mega- phones for hour after ear-slam- ming hour. For now, Japanese political rituals during this 17-day cam- paign period look nearly iden- tical to those from 1967, when au- thor and Japan scholar Gerald Curtis tagged along with the cam- paign of a young lower house


candidate whose loudspeaker droned over and over again, “This is Sato Bunsei. This is LDP- endorsed Sato Bunsei. I ask for your support.” “Values have changed here,


particularly among the young generation, and there’s so much discontent toward politics,” Cur- tis said in an interview. “Politics represents the old Japan. And now that party support is so low — leaving such a floating group of support — what happens in the weeks leading up is extremely im- portant. But the problem is, the campaigning is so artificial. It’s so restricted. It’s so out of tune with the values that society embraces.” OnSunday afternoon, Tokai ar- rived in Tokyo’s fashionable Gin- za neighborhood, where thou- sands walked the streets and at least a few stopped to listen. Her van, equipped with six mega- phones, stopped in front of a de- partment store. An assistant fas- tened a name sash over Tokai’s left shoulder, and seconds later the candidate appeared atop the


DIGEST ISRAEL


McCain: Iran attack not on table at moment Israel is not at the moment considering a military strike against Iran


to try to set back its nuclear program, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday during a visit to Jerusalem. McCain, who is in Israel with Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), spoke to reporters after meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel’s military chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi. “I don’t believe we are at the point of making that kind of decision, nor is the Israeli government, given the state that Iran is in now as far as the development of their nuclear weapons is concerned,” McCain said in response to a question on whether he would support an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Neither McCain nor Graham gave blanket support for an Israeli at- tack in the future. McCain said it was impossible for him to say wheth- er he would back such an operation because it “would be dictated by so many different circumstances.” Graham said he would not support an Israeli strike now because there are “many options still available to us.” Lieberman did not address the question directly. All three senators described Iran’s nuclear program in impassioned terms as one of the greatest strategic challenges in the Middle East to- day and said that a military option might be necessary if sanctions fail to halt the program. “We will use every means that we have to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power through diplomatic and economic sanctions if we pos- sibly can, through military action if we must,” Lieberman said. Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, was quoted by Iran’s ISNA


news agency on Wednesday as saying that sanctions could “slow down” Iran’s nuclear activities but would not stop them.


— Janine Zacharia FRANCE


Noriega sentenced to 7 years in prison A Paris court on Wednesday


convicted ailing former Panama-


nian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money in France and sentenced him to seven years behind bars — a decision that left friends and foes worried he


might die in a prison far from home. The sentence in France, where


Noriega was extradited 10 weeks ago, came on top of his two dec- ades spent in a U.S. prison. The court said there was enough evi- dence to establish that millions of euros that flowed through Norie- ga’s French bank accounts in the late 1980s were kickbacks from drug traffickers. For Noriega, who gives his age as 76 and is in poor health, the fu- ture is cloudy. Despite the seven- year sentence, he is likely to be eligible for parole within a year. However, Panama is seeking his extradition from France on much more serious charges, including the killing of political opponents. — Associated Press


MEXICO


Flooding at border forces evacuations Drenching storms have raised


reservoirs along the U.S.-Mexico border to their highest levels in decades, forcing officials to dump water into flooded rivers Wednes- day and evacuate tens of thou- sands of people from homes, with yet another storm on the way. The dramatic rise of the Rio


Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of at least one major bor-


CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES


BRITAIN Police move through the village of Rothbury, in England’s north, as part of a massive search for Raoul Moat, who allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and a police officer. The boyfriend died.


der crossing between downtown Laredo, Tex., and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Officials evacuated the flood-


threatened Vega Verde subdivi- sion in Del Rio, Tex., about 110 miles upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the Mexican state of Coahuila have damaged about 10,000 homes — many swamped in waist-deep water. — Associated Press


Germany to take two Guanta- namo detainees: After months of U.S. prodding, Germany has agreed to take in two inmates cleared for release from the de- tention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. German Interior Min- ister Thomas de Maiziere said the two have been at Guantanamo Bay for nine years and have yet to face criminal charges. He said Germany will turn down any fu-


ture requests to put up detainees.


Famed Russian pianist accused of rape: Internationally ac- claimed Russian pianist and con- ductor Mikhail Vasillievich Plet- nev has been charged with raping a 14-year-old boy at a Thai beach resort, police said. Pletnev said the charges were the result of a misunderstanding. — From news services


van — roughly 10 feet off the ground.


A former TV broadcaster, Tokai reminded herself to stay on point. Keep the sentences short. Repeat the key phrases. Economic growth. Her name. Her overseas job experience. Nothing seemed to catch people’s attention. A minute into her speech, with 10 passersby having stopped to listen, something unscripted happened. Tokai heard a distant noise. It grew louder. And then it grew louder still, booming, too much for Tokai’s megaphones to fight. She paused — two seconds, four seconds, 10 seconds — until, finally, the campaign van of Dem- ocratic Party of Japan candidate Eita Yashiro whizzed past, of- fering only a comic “Excuse me!” over its loudspeaker. For Japan’s new prime min-


ister, Naoto Kan, results of Sun- day’s elections will determine how effectively he will be able to shepherd legislation through parliament — including a debat- ed consumption-tax increase,


aimed at curbing Japan’s public debt. If Kan’s DPJ can capture an upper house majority, winning 60 seats, he will have a mandate and momentum. If his party falls well short, as polls now suggest, it will need to form coalitions or face legislative gridlock. While on the campaign trail, though, candidates say little about specific policy. Tokai fin- ished her seven-minute speech and then took to the streets, walking past the high-end stores, shaking hands. Among her seven- person support team, one held a microphone, repeating Tokai’s name and party. Another assis- tant had a megaphone strapped over his right shoulder. Still, Tokai said in an interview, she couldn’t help but notice that her amplified voice didn’t seem to be doing much to excite the electorate. “People just walk past, walk past,” she said.


harlanc@washpost.com


Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.


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