Many Sunnis to vote no in Iraq referendum

As far as he's concerned, ever since US forces drove Saddam Hussein, a fellow Sunni, from power, Iraq's Kurds and majority Shias have used democracy to grab an unfair share of power and to penalize the Sunni minority for the many abuses Shias suffered under Saddam.

But Hassan, a 55-year-old engineer, still shudders when he remembers an earlier Iraq referendum a vote held 10 years ago in which Saddam won another seven years in office as a ruler with absolute power.

Saddam was the only candidate on the ballot, Iraqis could only vote "yes" or "no," and they knew that casting a "no" vote meant being imprisoned or killed if the Iraq's ever-present secret service found out.

"During Saddam's time, we were forced to participate in that referendum," Hassan said in an interview after attending prayers last Friday at a Sunni mosque in central Baghdad. "People who didn't want to participate were threatened by Saddam's security forces. Now, nobody in the government can force us to go to polling stations, or order us which way to vote."

Fellow worshipper Khalid Ibrahim, a 45-year-old merchant, agreed.

"Now I am free to decide what I think is right without fear," he said. "I just hope I can trust the vote count on Oct. 15, given how much the US wants the `yes' side to win."

Meanwhile, British troops in southern Iraq have arrested 12 people, including policemen and militiamen, on terrorist charges following recent attacks on their forces, a British commander said yesterday. "Some of the individuals we have arrested are linked to militia groups in Basra ... some of the individuals are members of the Basra police service," Brigadier John Lorimer said in a statement following the Thursday evening arrests.

A leader of the Mehdi Army militia, loyal to firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said all those detained belonged to his organisation.

"They all belong to the Medhi Army," Fatah al-Sheikh told AFP.