IRAQ: The homecoming convoy of Iraq's top Shia leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, rolled into the US-administered zone of southern Iraq yesterday, with marines on edge in anticipation of an anti-American firebrand.
On his second day back home after 23 years exile in Iran and in his third public speech, Ayatollah Hakim told a crowd in Nasiriyah to reject any "imposed government" and not to fear the US troops controlling their city.
"We are not slaves, except slaves for God. We are not prisoners. We are not afraid of the forces that are around us now and watching us," the head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told a crowd of several thousand gathered on the banks of the Euphrates.
"We refuse an imposed government. We are afraid neither of America nor England. Would the Americans like to be governed by the British? So how can you expect us to be governed by the Americans?"
Turning to his vision for a future government, Ayatollah Hakim asserted the underlying goal was justice. This, he said, "comes from two elements - Islam and the rule of the people, which some call democracy."
Just 100 yards from the podium were a small group of US Marines, who privately admitted feeling unnerved by the return of the ayatollah. Some in Washington fear the 66-year-old Shia cleric is seeking to bring an Iranian-style regime to the country.
One marine said US troops had been warned that Ayatollah Hakim could be the target of assassination by rival Shia factions or by elements of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
The soldier cringed visibly every time the crowd began chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greater) or thumping their chests.
He admitted the only Arabic word he had so far learned was emshi, meaning "go away".
While Ayatollah Hakim did attempt to rouse the crowd with some discreet anti-Americanism, he also sought to cement his own position as a key representative and spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia majority.
"I was absent for 23 years, sacrificing for God and for you, to defend you from the regime," he said, bursting into tears. "These sacrifices have been to raise the flag of Islam.
"I am just a soldier from the army of Islam," he said, in an apparent attempt to counter critics who charge his 23 years in Iran have left him out of touch with his people.
Many Shias in Iraq are also wary of the installation of an Iranian-style clerical regime, and although Ayatollah Hakim did at one point say Iraqis should pray for Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he added that a future government "should not be dominated by just one clique". Only one portrait of Khomeini was spotted being held aloft.
Ayatollah Hakim is touring southern Iraq en route for his home in the holy city of Najaf.
While SAIRI objects to the presence of US and British forces in Iraq, it has taken the pragmatic decision to participate in the US-sponsored reconstruction process.
The group is a member of a council of former opposition groups that is preparing for a national congress later this month.