The new council is highly controversial among Iraqis

BAGHDAD, July 14 (IslamOnline.net) - Feeling the formation of the first post-war governing council and its powers are still shrouded in mystery, most Iraqis hoped the move would be a key milestone to ruling themselves.

The 25-member governing council of prominent Iraqis from diverse political and religious backgrounds was named at an inaugural meeting Sunday, July 13. The council, the first national body since the fall of Saddam Hussein, was formed amid rising calls for U.S.-led occupation forces to pack up and leave.

“The powers of the council are limited and its members were hand picked by the occupation forces,” traffic policeman Latif Fadel told Islamonline.net.

Despite being a good step down the road for the long waited dream of a national representative government to become a reality, Fadel showed reservations.

“It is rather better to see a sovereign governing body that could take decisions without the supervision of occupation forces,” he added.

The multiethnic panel will have real political muscle with the power to name ministers and approve the 2004 budget, but final control of Iraq still rests with the top American administrator, Paul Bremer.

“Mystery still shrouds what the council would do and on what basis their members were picked up,” said Um Hossam, whose son was injured during the grinding strikes by the U.S. and British forces beginning on March 20.

“The council should present its agenda in order to allow the Iraqis be informed over their perspective in the country,” said Atef Lutfi al-Gemeili, a local inhabitant of Ramadi, some 110 kilometers to the west of Baghdad.

Observers see setting up the governing body as a fresh U.S. military attempt to subside rising attacks that left more than 30 of its soldiers killed amid rising feeling of frustration and anti-American fury among local inhabitants over the slow pace of restoring order and transferring authority to the Iraqis in the invasion-battered country

One U.S. soldier was killed and eight others injured in separate attacks on U.S. forces one day after the formation of the council.

So there are fears that its agenda could be dominated by ending resistance to occupation rather than improving tough living conditions and absent basic services, observers said.

The council’s first decisions were to scrap all holidays honoring Saddam and his outlawed Baath Party and to create a new public holiday marking the day of his downfall, April 9, the day Baghdad fell to the U.S.-led occupation forces.

“I hope the council would lay down a well-drawn plan in the interests of local inhabitants, including restoring order and putting law back into effectiveness,” said a traffic policeman, who refused to give his name.

“They should move to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed during the war days and end all acts of looting and chaos plaguing the country shortly afterwards,” said Raafat Khaled, an Iraqi worker.

Khaled alluded most the council’s members are 'crème De la crème' of the society, but he added that what really does matter for him is that the council would carry its obligations.

The council comprises 13 Shi'ites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds, an Assyrian Christian and a Turkmen. Three members are women and 16 have either returned from exile or from an autonomous Kurdish area which was outside Saddam's control.

"The launch of the governing council will mean that Iraqis play a more central role in running their country," U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said in a statement.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, U.N. Special Representative for Iraq, told the council: "There are defining moments in history and today, for Iraq, is definitely one of them.”

But Iraqis feel words are still much needed to be laced with action.

"It will be a mammoth task for that council…it will never be that easy," head of the Iraqi National Assembly (INA) Laith Kabah told IOL.

“The council would come across political humps," Kabah said.