UN poised to endorse US-British control in Iraq

by Robert Holloway

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 (AFP) - The United States and Britain appear likely  to win UN Security Council endorsement Thursday for their broad powers in Iraq after leading opponents agree to a compromise proposal. The resolution would immediately lift the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 and put its oil revenues into a new development fund, to be held by the central bank and spent on reconstruction and humanitarian needs at the direction of the occupying powers.

The way was cleared for the resolution's passage Wednesday, when French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Paris that France, Germany and Russia had decided to vote yes. The 15 council members were due to meet at 9.30 am (1330 GMT) to adopt the text. One diplomat said only Syria's voting intentions were unclear.

The resolution also calls on the US and British forces to to help set up an interim Iraqi-run administration until "an internationally recognised, representative government is established by the people of Iraq." Villepin said at a joint news conference with his German and Russian counterparts, Joschka Fischer and Igor Ivanov, that "even if this text is not perfect, it takes into account our concerns."

The three had argued in negotiations for a 12-month time limit to the occupation of Iraq, to be renewed if the council agreed. That proposal would have given both France and Russia a permanent member's  veto over any extension of the occupation.

The United States and Britain rejected that proposal while revising their draft resolution three times since first submitting it May 9.  The resolution will ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a  special representative for Iraq whose functions would include "working together (with the occupying powers) to facilitate a process leading to" a new Iraqi government.

Annan said Monday he would "move very quickly" to make an appointment as soon as the resolution was adopted. The representative "would take up his job, his work in Iraq, as soon as is practicable," he said. There has been much speculation at UN headquarters that the job will go to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, but Annan's spokesman refused to comment, saying: "We never discuss candidates."

Vieira de Mello ran the UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor for two and a half years and steered the territory to independence from Indonesia on May 20, 2002. The final draft also failed to meet the demand expressed by Russia among others for UN arms inspectors to certify Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction before sanctions are lifted.

It tacitly accepted that US and British forces are now responsible for arms inspections by "encouraging" them to keep the council informed of their activities in that field. It said the council would "revisit the mandates" of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which were tasked with unearthing Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles.

The United States had said it would not allow UNMOVIC to resume the inspections broken off after only seven weeks on March 17, three days before the invasion of Iraq. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said a joint US-IAEA team might inspect a nuclear facility in Iraq as early as next week. "We are making arrangements with the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct a joint inspection of the safeguarded storage area near al-Tuwaitha," he said.

"Details of timing are not set yet, but we are looking to do this as soon as can be arranged. We're ready to have them as soon they're ready to go." In a small concession to Germany, the United States amended a paragraph in the resolution which requires all countries to freeze the assets of members of  the regime of Saddam Hussein, the ousted Iraqi leader, and transfer them to the development fund. The draft now excludes assets which have already been frozen and are the subject of legal action in a country's domestic courts.

US offers only faint praise for Belgian move on Franks lawsuit

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday expressed little satisfaction with the Belgian government's decision to pass on a lawsuit accusing the US military commander in Iraq of war crimes. The State Department said the move, an attempt by Brussels to quash the suit, was positive but stressed Washington would not be happy until the law under which the case was filed was radically altered or eliminated.

"This is a step in the right direction, to start handling the case this way," spokesman Richard Boucher said, confirming that the suit had indeed been given to the US embassy in Brussels, which had "accepted" the referral. But, he added: "We're not yet satisfied, frankly, with the overall situation. We look for the law to be changed."

Last week, the State Department branded the suit against General Tommy Franks "ludicrous" and demanded that the Belgian government move to dismiss it. Officials said they were torn about how to treat the case brought under Belgium's controversial "universal competence" law which allows charges to be brought regardless of where the alleged crimes took place.

"There is a big question about whether we should just sneer and rip it up with the contempt it deserves or give it a serious reading," one senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another official noted that despite the Belgian decision to pass the suit to US prosecutors, other similar cases, particularly ones naming Secretary of  State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and former president George Bush were still alive.

"We want to see them all go away," that official said. Boucher declined to comment on the seriousness with which Washington would handle the suit but appeared to hint that it would not be a high priority. "I'm sure we'll read it very carefully and give it all the attention that it deserves," he said.

The Belgian government took the decision on the advice of the federal prosecutor's office, where the suit against Franks was filed last week. The suit was passed on under an amendment to the law, passed in early April  in part due to US pressure, that enables Belgian authorities to decide whether a suit can be heard.

But the lawyer who filed the suit said earlier Wednesday that the Belgian government's referral of the case to US prosecutors was "illegal" and said he would appeal the decision to Belgium's Council of State. Jan Fermon represents the 17 Iraqis and two Jordanians who filed the suit alleging that soldiers under Franks' command in Iraq fired on ambulances, did not show due care in avoiding civilian casualties and failed to safeguard Iraq's cultural heritage.

Some 30 current or former political leaders are facing legal action under the law, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former US president George Bush.

Iraqi politicians resigned to UN resolution despite misgivings

by Steve Kirby

BAGHDAD, May 21 (AFP) - Iraqi politicians expressed misgivings Wednesday about a draft UN resolution giving the US-led coalition authority to run post-war Iraq, but said they saw little alternative to accepting it. The Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC) said it had "very serious concerns" about some of the changes London and Washington had made in a final draft of the resolution submitted to Security Council members earlier Wednesday.

Senior INC official Goran Talabani said his group was particularly concerned about a change in the wording used to describe the interim administration in Iraq from "provisional government" to "provisional authority". "There is a distinction," he said noting that an authority could not appoint diplomats abroad or issue currency.

Talabani also expressed opposition to the new position of UN overseer for the occupation proposed by Britain and the United States as a sop to Security Council critics of the war. He said Iraqis had no desire to have the "cumbersome UN bureaucracy" involved in their affairs again, particularly as documents recovered from former secret police buildings appeared to show "serious corruption" in the handling of the UN oil-for-food programme.

By contrast he said the party's experience of the coalition so far had been "extremely good", with British and US officials being very responsive to the concerns of Iraqi leaders. Talabani said the references made in the resolution to the coalition as the  "forces of occupation" also appeared to undercut the war-time rhetoric about a war of liberation which the INC along with many Iraqis had supported.

"The rationale being used for this resolution is to use the Geneva Convention of 1949 for occupying forces," he said, noting that Washington had yet to declare an end to the war. "You can bog yourself down with technical issues and lawyers ... and forget the important political points."

Other Iraqi politicians too expressed reservations about the apparent slight to Iraqi sovereignty but said they were resigned to working with the reality of coalition occupation. "Cooperation with the United States is inevitable," said Adnan Pachachi, a pro-Western former foreign minister who has recently returned from 33 years of  exile to stake his claim to a leadership role in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. "We have to adopt a balanced position that takes into consideration the situation as it is," said Pachachi, who was an opponent of the war. "The days of shouting slogans and trying to outbid each other are over."

Pachachi expressed concern that the resolution sought UN endorsement of the occupation "until an internationally recognised, representative government is established by the people of Iraq and assumes responsibilities." But he said that did not exclude some sort of Iraqi authority being formed in the meantime, if only to represent Iraq abroad.

"We must set up an interim government or authority to represent the Iraqi state before the international community -- the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)," he said. "It would be extraordinary for the coalition to send a representative to the Arab League."

Nuri al-Badran of the secular Iraqi National Accord group said Iraqi politicians need to address their demands for a greater say in running their country to the coalition, rather than the United Nations. "This resolution is not the only legal tool to establish a political structure," said Badran. "We can change the political structure if we agree with the occupying powers."

Washington, meanwhile, said the latest Security Council text was final and would be put to a vote on Thursday. The resolution will immediately lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 and put its oil revenues into a new development fund, to be held by the central bank and spent on reconstruction and humanitarian needs at the direction of the occupying powers.

US chief rules out conference on Iraq's future before July

BAGHDAD, May 21 (AFP) - The head of the US-led administration in Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Wednesday put off until July a planned meeting of Iraqi politicians to chart out the country's political future. "I don't think it's going to be in June," he said in a fresh shifting of  the target date for the promised national conference that had originally been due by the end of the month.

"We are talking now like some time in July." When pressed, Bremer said he expected the meeting to go ahead in the middle of the month, but added: "I'm not going to stick myself with any kind of media deadline." He insisted he remained in contact with Iraqi politicians, who have voiced growing frustration with the ever-lengthening timescale for the US-led occupation to retain the reins of power.

"We are continuing our active dialogue with Iraqi leaders, I am meeting with them every day," he said. But he was dismissive of the seven-strong leadership council of former exiles established under his predecessor Jay Garner, which he met for the first time last week.

"The group we saw on Friday is not representative of the Iraqi people. We are going to broaden our reach with the partners we are talking to," said Bremer. "We want a government representative of the Iraqi people. That's the   process we are in now. We are moving as quickly as we can."

In recent days, coalition officials have distanced themselves from the original leadership council, saying they wanted to leave time for new parties and new leaders to emerge. They have also played down the likely role of the interim administration to be chosen by the promised national conference, saying its function will be to draw up a new constitution, not to control the day-to-day running of Iraq.

The policy shift has sparked an angry reaction from the former exiles, who accuse the coalition of creating a "sovereignty vacuum." "It's not up to the Americans to delay this government. This is a sovereign issue," said the Iraqi National Congress, which holds one of the seven seats on the council.

"We are allies of the United States but we do not take orders from the United States," its spokesman, Entifadh Qanbar, told reporters Tuesday. Bremer's comments came as he visited a former interrogation centre of  Saddam Hussein's feared secret police which is being put back into use in a bid to tackle the post-war lawlessness that is the principal complaint of  ordinary Baghdadis. "We are very aware of the concerns of the Iraqi people for security,"

Bremer said, as he emerged from a tour of the single-storey concrete block. "There certainly is a law and order problem, especially at night." The al-Karkh facility, hard by the former foreign ministry, is one of 10 former prisons around the capital that are being renovated to accommodate the hundreds of looters and other suspects being picked up by US patrols.

Since his arrival here early last week, Bremer has overseen a toughening of  the US approach, with a new military police task force mounting its first night raids Monday. But the message of Bremer's visit was somewhat undermined by a bomb scare immediately after his departure and a protest by some of the very police officers he insists he is keen to get back on the beat.

The officers mobbed their new commander, Colonel Jamal al-Maezidi, demanding to be paid their salaries for April and May and be given weapons to protect themselves against the heavily-armed thugs running amok across the city.

US Army Sergeant Charles Guyette, who oversaw the renovation of al-Karkh, also acknowledged the new prison behind a bombed-out state security building, would not be ready for at least a "couple days" and, like the rest of the surrounding neighbourhood, still lacked any power.

The prison will be run by Iraqi police, but under US oversight "until they learn the new system," Guyette said. "There will be no abuse, no mishandling of the meals." Running the new jails is likely to remain the principal function of Iraqi police for some time. With most of their police stations wrecked and their authority discredited by years of corruption and brutality, even those officers who have returned to work in the capital are unwilling to go out on patrol without the protection of US troops.

Elsewhere on the ground, the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) for post-war Iraq said it was in the process of establishing a committee to oversee the amicable settlement of property disputes. And Jay Garner told reporters the US administration will start paying wages to civil servants, but not military or intelligence personnel, from Saturday. "The former system was paid on briberies. In the new system, it will be paid according to merit," vowed Garner.

US administration in Iraq to start paying civil servants Saturday

BAGHDAD, May 21 (AFP) - The US administration in Iraq said Wednesday it  will start paying wages to civil servants, but not military or intelligence personnel, from Saturday. "Starting from Saturday, the first salary payment since the fall of Saddam will be made. No military, no intelligence service, will be paid," retired US general Jay Garner told reporters. "The former system was paid on briberies. In the new system, it will be paid according to merit," vowed Garner. "More than 50 percent of the people will receive more than before," said David Nummy, a US treasury department official. Garner said some 175 million dollars taken from Iraqi funds frozen in the United States will be used to pay Iraq's 1.4 million civil servants, in dinars in central and southern Iraq and dollars in Kurdistan.

Teachers will earn on average a salary five times higher than that under Saddam Hussein's rule, ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 dinars (20 to 100 dollars) a month, while a policeman will get wages varying from 60,000 to 100,000, he said. Saturday's payment will be the salary for April, a US official said.

Coalition offers Iraqis cash for information on banned weapons

BAGHDAD, May 21 (AFP) - The US-British coalition occupying Iraq on Wednesday urged Iraqis to come forward with any information about banned weapons programmes and offered "generous rewards". Having failed to come up with proof to support the main justification for invading Iraq, the coalition broadcast by radio the appeal for help from "honourable Iraqis".

People were asked "to supply any information in their possession about these weapons" of mass destruction. "Generous rewards await (those who provide) any information on the whereabouts of components, products or equipment used to develop, process, produce or maintain weapons of mass destruction," the report said.

"This includes laboratory equipment and computers or any document relating to the planning, purchase, sale, export, storage, maintenance or use of  weapons of mass destruction," the radio announced. Al-Manar newsaper, a new independent daily, said the reward was up to 200,000 dollars.

The appeal also covered "any person having taken part in the development or use of arms of mass destruction" as well as "any site having served for the production or manufacture of such weapons."   Any informers were ensured anonymity. Washington and London insisted before launching the war that Iraq was developing banned weapons and put up satellite pictures of sites and intelligence reports to back up the claim. But despite occupying the country for more than 40 days and a host of  alerts and tips, nothing substantial has been made public and the international community remains sceptical.

Iraq repeatedly denied the allegations. Saddam Hussein's scientific adviser General Amer al-Saadi surrendered to coalition forces on April 12, three days after the war ended and insisted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

The former head of Iraq's biological warfare program, Rihab Rashid Taha, known as "Doctor Germ," was held by US forces earlier this month, again raising hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt for prohibited arms. Taha shared the distinction as leader of Iraq's biological warfare program with Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a US-trained microbiologist, dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax," captured at the start on May.

Also in US hands is Taha's husband, Amer Mohammad Rashid, a former oil minister and top weapons adviser to Saddam, who surrendered April 28, and Hossam Mohammad Amin, an army general who was head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate and chief liaison to UN weapons inspectors.

The Pentagon, which has preferred to search for Iraq's alleged weapons of  mass destruction itself, has until now blocked the return of UN arms inspectors who were charged before the war with ridding the regime of weapons  of mass destruction.