Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003
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The reconstruction chief, Jay Garner, opened the Baghdad meeting on Mr. Hussein's 66th birthday — until this year, a public holiday — telling participants they bore a heavy responsibility in launching a new era for Iraq. ``Today, on the birthday of Saddam Hussein, let us start the democratic process for the children of Iraq,'' Gen. Garner (Retd) told the meeting at a heavily-guarded convention centre in the bombed-out heart of Baghdad's Government district. As he spoke, several hundred protesters, mostly Shia Muslims, staged the latest of a series of rallies held since U.S. troops rolled into Baghdad on April 9. Demonstrators protested that Shia leaders from the holy city of Najaf were not adequately represented at the talks. Those attending the meeting included clerics from the Shia majority and from the traditionally dominant Sunni Muslims, as well as Kurds from the northern mountains. Arab tribal chiefs in robes and headdresses mixed with urban professionals in Western-style suits. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who directed the three-week war to oust Mr. Hussein, was in Qatar on Monday as part of a Gulf tour to thank allies for their help and to discuss a possible realignment of American deployments in the region. A U.S. defence official, citing security concerns, would not say if Mr. Rumsfeld would visit Iraq during his Gulf tour. In today's protest outside the Palestine Hotel, Baghdad's main media centre, a few demonstrators carried banners in support of Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, the former exile who declared himself mayor of Baghdad but was arrested by U.S. forces on Sunday. A U.S. statement said Mr. Zubaidi had been detained because of ``subversive'' activities that included telling people they could not return to work without his approval. His ``efforts to take political and personal advantage during this transitional period made it necessary for coalition forces to act decisively against him'', it said. Gen. Garner, who assured Iraqis on Sunday that the U.S. would get out of their country as soon as possible, plans to oversee the immediate reconstruction of Iraq and then hand over to an interim government before a democratic election. He hopes the process of forming a government will start by the weekend. The meeting on Monday was far bigger than initial discussions held near the southern city of An-Nassiriya on April 15, just days after U.S.-led troops ousted Mr. Hussein. Among those attending was the main Shia Muslim group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which boycotted the An-Nassiriya talks. It was not immediately clear if the pro-American, Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress umbrella group, would accept his invitation to take part. The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Marwan al-Muasher, in an interview with a U.S. television network, condemned Mr. Chalabi, who has been convicted of bank fraud in Jordan, as a divisive figure. The World Bank chief, James Wolfensohn, estimated the international community would have to raise $2 billions to $3 billions a year to rebuild Iraq. In an interview with the French business daily La Tribune, he said reconstruction should not be a major problem but its pace would depend on how much of Iraq's oil revenues were devoted to rebuilding the country. — AP
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