12-15-2005

伊拉克议会选举选民投票率高 (Strong Turnout in Iraq's Parliamentary Election)

零星的暴力未能干扰伊拉克新议会4年任期的选举。选举官员说，伊拉克18个省的投票率都很高，选民为275个议会席位进行投票。投票于当地时间下午5点结束。据报导，反叛分子猖獗的伊拉克西部的逊尼派阿拉伯人选区由于投票率高而缺少空白选票。逊尼派大多数人抵制了上次选举。

尽管这次选举有高度的保安措施，以及数万伊拉克部队和联军部队的防护，不过还是出现零星暴力。两人在伊拉克以北不同的事件中丧生。另外，在首都的绿区，一枚火箭袭击导致3人受伤。为数不多的事件与今年1月过渡议会选举时形成了鲜明的对比。那次选举中有40多人丧生。

什叶派和库尔德人在过渡议会占多数地位，但是逊尼派阿拉伯人希望在新的议会中发挥更大的作用。选举的最后结果预计在几天后揭晓。

Sporadic violence failed to disrupt Iraq's vote for a new four-year parliament. Election officials reported strong turnout across the country's 18 provinces, where voters cast ballots for the 275-seat parliament. Polls closed at 5 p.m. Thursday. In insurgency-plagued western Iraq, a shortage of ballots was reported due to high turnout among Sunni Arabs who mostly boycotted the last election.

There was some violence, despite extremely tight security measures and tens of thousands of Iraqi and coalition troops on guard. Two people were killed in separate incidents north of Baghdad. Also, three people were wounded in a rocket attack on the capital's Green Zone. The limited number of incidents are in contrast to January's election for an interim assembly, when some 40 people were killed.

Shi'ites and Kurds dominated the interim assembly, but Sunni Arabs hope to have a bigger voice in the new parliament. Final election results are not expected for several days.

人权组织要求公开调查中国枪击案 (Rights Group Demands Open Probe of China Shootings)

国际人权组织人权观察要求北京当局允许对中国南方一座村庄最近发生的事件进行独立调查。中国警察开枪打死了抗议政府占用土地作法的居民。人权观察星期四说，目前迫切需要对广东省警察开枪的事件展开公开调查，可以由联合国进行，也可以由其他的独立专家进行。

东洲村的居民说，村民认为政府征用土地时赔偿不合理，在上星期的抗议过程中，警察向他们开枪，打死大约20人。中国官方媒体已经证实，东洲村发生了枪击事件，但是还有许多细节还不清楚，外人也不准进入东洲村。

Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, is calling on authorities in Beijing to allow an independent investigation of recent events at a village in southern China where police fired on and killed residents protesting terms of a government seizure of their land. Human Rights Watch says Thursday there is an urgent need for an open investigation of the police shootings in Guangdong province -- either by the United Nations or by other independent experts.

Residents of Dongzhou village said police fired on and killed about 20 people last week, during a protest against the Chinese government's supposedly inadequate payments for land it expropriated. Chinese state-run news media have confirmed there was a shooting incident in Dongzhou village, but many details remain unclear, and outsiders have been denied access to the village.