Bremer says that former Iraqi opposition leaders do not represent Iraq

WASHINGTON, June 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Returning home after years of exile believing they would run their country after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi exile opposition leaders were sidelined by the U.S.-led occupation authority on grounds they were insufficient and disorganized, a leading U.S. news paper reported Sunday, June 8.

In the eight weeks after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces, leaders of seven political groups that had opposed Saddam acted with the swagger of a government in waiting, the Washington Post reported.

The U.S.-installed council comprises the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the Iraqi National Accord (INA), the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Shiite Al-Da’wa Party and the Sunni National Democratic Party.

But as days went by they found that dreams of assuming power evaporated, and that the U.S. was exploiting to the full the recently passed Security Council resolution giving Washington and London broad authority to run Iraq, the Post said.

Backtracking on early pledges of an interim government that would lead to a permanent one, U.S. civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer said during a meeting with the former Iraqi exiles last week he intended to appoint Iraqis to a council that would advise him on policy decisions instead of endorsing the formation of a full interim government.

In a meeting Wednesday, May 22, Bremer put off until at least July a planned meeting of Iraqi politicians to chart out the country's political future.

He also said the seven Iraqi leaders were not "representative of the Iraqi people."

Long-Term Occupation

The Post said the decision not to hand over power to Iraqi opposition leaders through a formed transitional government means the U.S. plans an occupation much longer than initially planned.

One senior U.S. official in Iraq predicted that process could last two years or more.

"The idea that some in Washington had -- that we would come in here, set up the ministries, turn it all over to the seven and get out of Dodge in a few months -- was unrealistic," the official said.

Some U.S. officials in Baghdad said the decision to back away from the exiles was part of a broader restructuring of the U.S. postwar occupation strategy.

On April 30, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, during a tour in postwar Iraq, said the U.S.-led forces would stay as long as necessary.

‘Regression’ 

"If they sideline the former opposition groups, who are they going to consult with? " Bayati wondered

Bremer’s decision to set up an advisory council instead of devolving power to a transitional government has riled the Iraqi opposition leaders, who accuse the U.S.-led troops of shunning them and creating a "sovereignty vacuum."

"This is a regression of what the U.S. had promised us," Entifadh Qanbar, a top official with the INC, said.

"We should not be sidelined," he stressed. "We should not be looked at as unrepresentative. In any democracy, there is no government that represents everybody."

Iraqi opposition leaders insisted that participants in the so-called advisory council be selected through a national assembly.

Bremer, however, rejected that request, arguing it would take too long to convene an assembly and that it could be prone to manipulation by former Baathists and “radical” Muslim scholars.

In response, one of two Shiite parties among the seven, the SCIRI, threatened to boycott the advisory council if members were selected by Bremer.

"If he's going to appoint an administration, we can't be part of that," said Hamid Bayati, a top SCIRI official.

"We will only be part of an administration selected by the Iraqi people. There are certain lines which we cannot cross," he asserted.

"Before we got here, we had to depend on the exiles," one U.S. official said. "That's no longer the case."

Bayati hit out, however, wondering: "If they sideline the former opposition groups, who are they going to consult with?

"If he doesn't take the view of the seven groups, what other Iraqi groups can replace them?"

The frustration of former exiles extends beyond those seeking a role in politics.

Some Iraqis who have recently returned under Pentagon sponsorship to serve as technical advisers to government ministries complained that promises of significant responsibility have not been kept.

"Our role is very limited," the Post quoted as saying Isam Khafaji, a professor who had been living in the Netherlands and was sent to Iraq last month as part of the Defense Department's Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council.

"We're not allowed to make any decisions."

The 150-member group had been billed by the Pentagon as a way to bring exiles with specific technical experience back to the country to help resuscitate ministries.

The participants were expected to stay for about 90 days and serve as advisers to ministerial employees and U.S. officials.

Khafaji, who left Iraq in 1978, said he and several others were told they would have a chance to play a key role in reshaping the ministries.

"We've been marginalized and humiliated," one returning exile said. "We came here to help, to make a difference. Now it looks like nobody wants us."

Iraqi tribal leaders lambasted in a meeting held Monday, June 2, with U.S. officials hollow American promises on interim government and other pledges that were never honored.

On Thursday, June 5, head of the Unified Iraqi National Movement (UINM) Ahmad al-Kubaissi hit out at the occupation forces in Iraq for according insignificant role for the U.S.-sanctioned sevenfold Iraqi leadership council.