The Hindu : Intention not to control Iraq: Rumsfeld

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

International

International

Intention not to control Iraq: Rumsfeld

BAGHDAD MAY 1. The U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald H. Rumsfeld, operating out of a palace that once belonged to the ousted President, Saddam Hussein, assured Iraqis that the U.S. was eager to return the country to their control.

"Iraq belongs to you," Mr. Rumsfeld, the highest-ranking U.S. administration official to visit the Iraqi capital, said in a message broadcast over radio and television in the Baghdad area on Wednesday. "The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq."

On Thursday, Mr. Rumsfeld met briefly in Kuwait City the Kuwaiti Emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, telling him he had a good visit to Baghdad.

"The single most vivid impression is that the regime of Mr. Hussein did very poorly for the people of Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld said. ``It put the money into the wrong thing. The country is run down.''

Mr. Rumsfeld's visit to Iraq came amid further bloodshed in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, where U.S. soldiers fired on anti-American protesters for the second time this week. The Mayor said two people were killed and 18 wounded in the Sunni Muslim city and Ba'ath Party stronghold 50 km west of Baghdad. Marchers were protesting a Monday night shooting that hospital officials said killed 13 Iraqis.

Mr. Rumsfeld told American troops that the administration of the President, George W. Bush, was actively encouraging countries to turn over Iraqi fugitives. ``My impression is some (countries) that were accepting them are no longer, which is a good start,'' Mr. Rumsfeld told a rally at Baghdad airport, formerly called Saddam International. The Defence Secretary had previously accused Syria of allowing former members of the regime to cross its borders. He also called on Iraqis to tell coalition solders about former Iraqi officials and foreign fighters who might still be in their neighbourhoods. Mr. Rumsfeld praised U.S. troops and said they had ``unleashed events that will unquestionably shape the course of this country.'' — AP