IRAQIS OPPOSED TO SADDAM TO FORM A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE
By Safa Haeri, IPS Editor at the Conference
LONDON 15 Dec. (IPS) As the London Conference of the Iraqis opposed to Saddam Hoseyn continued Sunday to hammer out a road map for a post Saddam transition period, experts and analysts debating behind closed doors in working committees paid an unexpected attention to the question of Iran and agreed that Iraqi dictator’s attack on Iran was tantamount of a crime which should have been dealt immediately by the international community instead of rushing to help him.
Informed Iraqi sources told Iran Press Service that the experts acknowledged
the support Iran has provided to the Iraqi opposition and shelter to hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi refugees, mostly Kurds and Shi’as, and also paid
special attention to the Iranian opposition, which is putting a serious
challenge to the ruling ayatollahs.
The Islamic Republic, in a show of solidarity with the Iraqi dictator, has ignored the London meeting and has stated that it would not allow Iraqi forces based in Iran to cross the border in case the United States attacks Iraq.
While experts were putting the final touch on the concluding statement, expected to be published Monday, -- and likely to call for a federal Iraq and create a leadership committee with a revolving presidency and a follow up committee --, analysts, both Iraqis and internationals, doubted the opposition could effectively run a nation that has lived more than four decades under one of the most brutal system of government.
"This regime has terrorised the Iraqi much more the Nazis did in Germany. It has militarised the Iraqi society. It rules by fear and terror", confirmed Mr. Fou’ad Ma’soom, one of the organisers of the conference.
"Iraq under Saddam has been transformed into a big prison which we shall close down", said Ayatollah Mohammad Bahrol’oloom, a respected moderate cleric.
Sunni Arabs who complained the London conference was dominated by Shiite and Kurdish groups fear the policy-setting committee will be similar.
"The Kurds and the Shiites are the majority in Iraq and it's only normal that they will have a larger representation here in this conference," said spokesman al-Bayati, who also represents one of the conference's main participants the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Shiite group is considered the biggest Iraqi opposition faction.
Sunni Arabs who complained the London conference was dominated by Shiite and Kurdish groups fear the policy-setting committee will be similar.
"The Kurds and the Shiites are the majority in Iraq and it's only normal that they will have a larger representation here in this conference," said spokesman al-Bayati, who also represents one of the conference's main participants the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Shiite group is considered the biggest Iraqi opposition faction.
Sunni Arabs who complained the London conference was dominated by Shiite and Kurdish groups fear the policy-setting committee will be similar.
"The Kurds and the Shiites are the majority in Iraq and it's only normal that they will have a larger representation here in this conference," said spokesman al-Bayati, who also represents one of the conference's main participants the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Shiite group is considered the biggest Iraqi opposition faction.
"Many of the people present at this conference and who eloquently talk about democracy and freedom have no respect for either. Just look at the way the Kurds are fighting and killing each other, or how some groups do not want to make any concession to others", one delegate told IPS.
His answer is that the United States and the international community must assist the Iraqi opposition during the transitional period "and maybe for a long time, as they did for Bosnia and Afghanistan", he pointed out.
Actually, Washington has modelled the London meeting on the one organised last year in Bonn, Germany, for the Afghans opposed to the Taleban extremists who used to rule Afghanistan.
Mr. Ahmad Bamrani, a representative for Jalal Talebani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Europe said that not only the outcome of the London meeting would represent a "strong warning" to the Iraqi dictator, but also to other governments across the region, telling them they must take the opposition more seriously and help it more directly".
Hamid al-Bayati, a member of the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told journalists that "Saddam's days are numbered now and we will see very soon a free and democratic Iraq".
Not all the delegates shared his optimism and some even doubted whether the opposition had been able to put an end to its divisions and bickering, as some independent delegates were angry at the way the meeting is organised and pushes ahead for the final communiqué.
"This is not democratic. Every thing is decided before hand and imposed. There was no debate on the final documents of the meeting", observed Mr. Mehdi Abbas, who has travelled all the way from Minnesota to London.
But he did not said if his criticism is turned towards the organisers or Washington.
"What you are seeing at this conference is parliamentary procedure in motion to come up with an authority ready to fill any vacuum in Iraq", Ahmad Chalabi, the American-backed president of the Iraqi National Congress told journalists.
The conference comes as U.S. President George W. Bush, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair as his closest ally, keeps up the pressure on Saddam to abide by U.N. resolutions and disclose alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad, President George Bush’s Afghan-born Special Envoy for Iraq told the conference that he believed Saddam would pass up the opportunity embodied in the latest U.N. resolution on weapons inspections.
"We don't want war with Iraq. We want Saddam to comply with U.N. resolutions and (we want) freedom and liberty for the Iraqi people", he said, addressing the 350 delegates from 50 different Iraqi political, religious and ethnic groups.
"We believe Iraq will be free from tyranny and its people will unite to build a democratic future. As they do so they will find the United States standing with them and building a better future for Iraq", Mr. Khalilzad added.
"History teaches that when people stand together against tyranny then tyranny will fail and liberty and freedom will prevail".
As the general session broke up into smaller groups late Sunday to try to work out differences, the conference was deadlocked over who should sit on a policy-making committee for Iraq's future.
No faction wants to be left out of the policy committee, as many believe it would serve as a transitional government if Saddam were toppled.
Setting a policy-making team was one goal of the conference, which was driven by ethnic, religious and political rivalries among its 300 participants.
Sunni Arabs complained that Shiite dominated the conference and Kurdish groups fear the policy-setting committee will be similar.
"The Kurds and the Shiites are the majority in Iraq and it's only normal that they will have a larger representation here in this conference", Bayati observed.
Outside the conference, a small number of Kurdish and Islamist demonstrated against the conference.
"These self-appointed rulers cannot be trusted. They will continue the cycle of repression in Iraq", the British news agency Reuters quoted Bahram Soroush, one of the protesters.
The meeting broke up on Sunday into committees to discuss working papers that include democracy, federalism and Kurdish claims to Kirkuk, a region in northern Iraq rich in oil and controlled by Baghdad.
The Kurds lay claim to Kirkuk as part of an imprecise region they call Kurdistan. The two Kurdish parties taking part in the meeting have been running parts of northern Iraq since 1991. ENDS IRAQI OPPOSITION CONFERENCE 151202