International

Acrimony at Iraqi Opposition meet in London

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON DEC. 14. Expatriate Iraqi Opposition groups, backed by Britain and America, have issued a provisional blueprint for a post-Saddam Iraq after a meeting here amid reports of continuing deep divisions among the ambitious exiled leaders.

The blueprint, described as a "set of principles'' around which future discussions would take place, envisages a democratic, multi-ethnic and federal Iraq but sharp differences over details remained and observers warned of a bitter "power struggle'' ahead.

The document also outlines plans for a transitional administration which would govern Iraq after the hypothetical `fall' of Saddam Hussein until an elected Government is in place as happened in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban regime.

But even as the blueprint was being distributed acrimony broke out among the delegates with some groups accusing others of `hijacking' the agenda. The main target of attack was the Iraqi National Congress (INC), once the hot favourite of Washington and architect of several failed attempts in the nineties to overthrow the Saddam government. It was accused, particularly by Kurdish groups, of trying to "take over'' the event by "exaggerating'' its influence.

Critics of the INC leader Ahmed Chalabi called him a "Western puppet'' and openly questioned his claim to "represent'' the people of Iraq. They said the reason why he "sabotaged'' plans for a similar meeting in Brussels recently was that he feared that he would be overshadowed by parties which had greater influence in Iraq. They also pointed out that his personal influence even in Washington had declined after allegations of corruption.

There was also widespread scepticism about American aims and motives. Representatives of Kurdish communities, whose previous efforts to take on the Saddam regime collapsed for want of timely U.S. support, alleged that Washington was simply using the Opposition groups to push its own agenda and might dump them once its purpose had been served as it did in the past.

The meeting, the largest gathering of Iraqi dissidents abroad, attracted nearly 300 delegates from six groups-INC, four Kurdish parties and the Constitutional Monarchy Movement-which hope to lead a post-Saddam Iraq. But such was the mood of acrimony that, according to reports, one delegate was overheard telling another: "Just you wait until we have democracy in Iraq and I'll throw you on jail.''

The feuding groups, each pursuing their own agendas, include several retired generals who claim they still have sufficient clout in the army to mobilise it against Mr. Hussein with the U.S. support. But they are not trusted by many of the `civilian' parties which accuse them of having been once part of Saddam's repressive regime.

Efforts by London and Washington to bring such disparate elements on a common platform as a viable alternative to the Saddam regime have had a limited success and Iraqi observers warned that the divisions were likely to deepen as prospects of real power loomed closer.

``They have had 12 years to unite on common aims. Instead they have looked to the U.S., Iran, Turkey or Syria. It is too late now to do in two months what they should have been doing since 1990,'' a senior Kurdish leader Mahmoud Othman said even as a scramble broke out over the constitution of a 50-member advisory panel to guide the `transition' to a `new' Iraq. Members of the panel are expected to play a key role in the run-up to a "regime change'' in Baghdad.

Despite the hype over the meeting, seasoned Iraqi watchers were sceptical about the prospects of an Opposition united front emerging any time soon.

But an INC spokesman insisted that the groups were united. "We are united and we want to lay down in a formal framework what we have been discussing for many months — that is democratic, free Iraq, that the people of Iraq can choose the Government they want and choose who governs them" he told BBC

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