BAGHDAD,
June 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US-led
occupation authorities of Iraq formally transferred power to the
country’s interim government on Monday, June 28, two days earlier
than expected as Iraqis fear that the move will prove ceremonial.
The
expediting low-key ceremony was attended by the outgoing US governor
of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and senior Iraqi officials, CNN reported.
Bremer
handed the transfer document to the head of the Iraqi Supreme Court,
who then gave it to President Ghazi Al-Yawer.
It
took place at around 10:26 a.m. Baghdad time inside the so-called
Coalition Provisional Authority's "Green Zone" headquarters
in the Iraqi capital.
"This
is a historic and happy day for us in Iraq," CNN quoted Yawer as
saying. "It is a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward
to. This is the day that we take our country back into the
international community."
"We
want a free and democratic Iraq, and we want a country that is a
source of peace and stability for the whole world."
US
President George W. Bush welcomed the transfer of power in Iraq as a
"sign that its new leaders are serious about quelling violence
there".
Bremer
has handed Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi a letter from Bush,
asking him to restore diplomatic relations, Aljazeera satellite
channel reported.
He
then boarded a helicopter less than an hour later to begin his trip
out of Iraq after 14 months as the administrator of the US-led
occupation authorities, according to occupation military spokesman
Mark Kimmitt.
"Constrained
Powers"
An
Iraqi official told CNN that interim premier Iyad Allawi requested the
expedition of power transfer because "every day matters" and
they were ready to crack down on violence.
Speaking
on the sidelines of a
that will significantly restrict the powers of the interim government.
Foreign
Troops Must Leave
Lay
people in Iraq received the power transfer with an unmistakable
message: The US-led occupation troops, who will stay under the guise
of a multinational keeping force, must leave.
"The
first thing we will ask the interim government to do is to expedite
the withdrawal of foreigners," lawyer Nizam Hammoudi Al-Taai told
IslamOnline.net.
He
said the Iraqi people will not tolerate the presence of the US-led
occupation troops under the cloak of the United Nations.
"No
human being can whatsoever accept occupation and we must be kidding
ourselves if we give the occupation another name," added Sami
Mohsen Al-Mousawi.
He
said the stay of the occupation troops in Iraq should be according to
a specific timetable.
Monzer
Al-Badri, an engineer, said the presence of US-led troops under the UN
is only aimed at shining up the badly tarnished image of the
occupation.
"Iraq
is a tradition-bound nation that has history dating back to 5,000
years and can’t bow to foreign authorities," agreed Mohammad
Al-Mishhadani, the secretary general of the Arab Historians League.
Asked
about the performance of the interim government, Taai said it is too
early to judge Allawi, but noted that it was a step forward toward
making the dreams of Iraqi people come true after 35 years of
oppression and injustice.
Saddam’s
Trial
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"We're
going to have control of Saddam Hussein," Rubei (AFP)
|
Meanwhile,
top Iraqi officials said that ousted Iraqi president
Saddam
Hussein will
be hauled in chains before an Iraqi judge within days to hear his
arrest warrant.
"We're
going to have control of Saddam Hussein," Iraq’s national
security advisor Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie told the US television network
CBS.
"We're
going to have two American military MPs (Military police) to hand him
over to four Iraqi policemen. They will put a chain [on him] and take
him to the waiting room," Rubaie said.
"The
judge will call his name, Saddam Hussein Majid. And they will bring
him in... open his chain, handcuff and take him to the judge and the
judge is going to give him his rights and his defense and he's going
to issue an arrest warrant against Saddam Hussein."
Rubaie
said Saddam will be hauled in the dock "in a couple of days time,
probably".
He
vowed the trial of Saddam would not turn into a replay of the war
crimes trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic at The
Hague, in which he could grandstand and appeal to the sympathies of
people back home.
"We
have put some restriction on the political discussion. Basically this
is going to be purely his criminal acts," Rubaie said.
Allawi
said Saddam "will be under the jurisdiction of Iraq".
"We
may ask a multinational force to be involved in the protection of the
outside of the outskirts of the prison, but definitely he will be
under the jurisdiction of Iraq," Agence France-Presse (AFP)
quoted Allawi as saying.
"You
will see him move and you will know where he is," he added.
But
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the ex-president would remain
in the physical custody of US forces for the foreseeable future.
Allawi
has declined to specify whether Saddam could receive the death
penalty.
"I
am going to endorse what the judicial system decides," Allawi
said.
US
occupation troops captured the former strongman of Iraq in December as
he was
discovered
hiding in a small
hole at a farm near his hometown of Tikrit.
The
US Defense Department named Saddam
a
prisoner of war after
much legal wrangling and held him at an unknown location.
Law
experts had said that Saddam
should
stand an
Iraqi trial under Arab-International supervision to guarantee a fair
trail.
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday, June
14, that Saddam must either
be
released from
the custody of the US occupation or charged by June 30, when the new
Iraqi government takes over in accordance with international law.
