4:37:38 PM
Karbala, Iraq, May 24 - Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Al-Hakim, a top Shiite leader, returned to this holy city Saturday for the first time after 23 years in exile and demanded to know why Iraqis were not running their country.

"Have Iraqis reached the age of reason?" Hakim asked in a speech to thousands of the faithful whose shouts had delayed the start of what his aides billed as an important address to the people.

"Why do they not have the right to form a government and to manage their affairs?"

Hakim spoke at the Imam Hussain domed mosque, the holiest shrine of the 12 Shiite Imams, in Karbala, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

"Why is the running of the country and the government not transferred to Iraqis?

Are they still minors who cannot govern their country?" He added in a series of rhetorical questions which begged only one answer.

source: www.irib.com