Iraqis pressed for national conference, Anglo-American withdrawal

BAGHDAD, April 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Amid water-tight security, tanks standing guards and helicopters flying overhead, some 250 tribal chiefs, Shiite and Sunni clerics, Kurdish leaders and other invitees met Monday, April 28, with the U.S. administrator of Iraq Jay Garner, as thousands of Iraqis took to the streets demanding national unity.

The protestors, led by religious leaders, pressed for holding a plenary national conference to shape-up the new Iraqi government and called on the Anglo-American forces to withdraw from the country.

"We want an Iraqi national conference which will very quickly open the way for all political sides, including the Hawza, to set up a provisional government," said Baghdad university political science professor Nadim Issa over a loudhailer.

"This government should run Iraq for one year, during which a constitution must be drawn up enshrining the freedom and rights of everyone," he said.

The demonstration stopped in front of two tanks and lines of barbed wire outside the Palestine Hotel where journalists are housed and U.S. forces have set up office, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

This came as Garner told participants in Monday’s conference, the second since the fall of Baghdad, that he and his staff would be giving them the tools and resources to restart the process of government.

"We want a just state, and an Islamic one would be best because Islam is better than democracy," delegate Sheikh Ali Abdul Aziz, leader of the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan, told AFP.

But trader Saadi Abdul Rasul Ali said: "We prefer to have religion separate from the state because it would be better for our country. There are so many different communities."

The duration of the U.S. military occupation has been one of the thorniest issues in the minds of many Iraqis already frustrated by the anarchy and lack of basic services since the war.

Much of the country remains without electricity and water more than two weeks after Saddam's downfall. Telephones are still not working and the streets are piled high with uncollected rubbish.

"The Americans have done something great by removing Saddam and history will remember what they did," said delegate Abdul Reda Saadoun from the Higher Council for the Liberation of Iraq, a Shiite group.

"We want them to stay until the situation becomes stable," he said.

Tribal leader Hussein Shaanan said: "We thank the forces that have freed us from the dictatorship, but now we'd like them to leave as soon as possible."

Garner said the U.S. authorities were following two paths side by side, "the first path is reconstruction and the second is government."

"I'm going to give you a report on reconstruction and you're going to begin the process of government," he added.

"It's our job to give you the tools that you need, and the resources you need."

Garner also said there would be a town hall meeting in Baghdad Tuesday, April 29, to discuss security.

The meeting started with a brief address by U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, before Garner spoke.

The United States has not set a date for when it will hand over power to a future government and many Iraqis have been calling for U.S. troops to pull out of the country as soon as possible.

More than two weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's political future is anything but clear although an initial meeting of dozens of hopefuls on April 15 pledged to create a democratic state under the rule of law.

The United States has warned neighboring Iran, which is ruled by Shiite clergy, not to interfere in the formation of the new government and said it would not accept an Iranian-style theocracy in the future Iraq.