The Hindu : International : Iraqis scoff at handover plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 05, 2004

International

International

Iraqis scoff at handover plan

By Luke Harding—

BAGHDAD, MAY 4. The U.N.'s special envoy to Iraq, Lakhadar Brahimi, is expected to arrive later on Tuesday in Baghdad amid growing criticism that the caretaker Iraqi Government he is about to appoint will have virtually no powers.

Mr. Brahimi is to hold consultations with the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S.-led coalition provisional authority over who should lead the new government after the handover of power on June 30. He is likely to announce that a Shia will fill the top job of interim prime minister, with new posts of president and two deputies to go to a Sunni, Shia and a Kurd.

But Mr. Brahimi's visit to Baghdad is overshadowed by the U.S.'s announcement that it intends to hand back ``full sovereignty'' but only ``limited authority'' to the new Iraqi government.

``How can you have full sovereignty with only limited authority?'' Mahmoud Othman, a leading member of the Governing Council, asked yesterday. ``This sounds like a joke.''

The Bush administration has made clear that the caretaker government will have no control over security, laws or budgets. ``They are not giving real authority to the Iraqis,'' Dr. Othman complained. ``Without real power the new Government cannot work. It will be paralysed.''

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Brahimi conceded that the 150,000 coalition soldiers in Iraq would not `disappear' at the end of next month. ``Practically every Iraqi I meet insists that the occupation must end on June 30,'' he added.

``That said, it's true that the (security) situation is causing concern and that if it continues to deteriorate beyond a certain threshold, I don't know.''

Under the Brahimi plan, the interim government will remain in office only until elections can be held in January 2005. The U.N. Security Council would also pass a new resolution authorising a multinational force in Iraq.

Yesterday, U.N. officials also announced that ordinary Iraqis would be invited to nominate candidates for the post of electoral commissioner to oversee the process of elections. Full-page adverts will run in the Iraqi press today. They fail to mention that Paul Bremer, the Bush administration's administrator in Iraq, will pick the winning candidate on May 31 from a U.N. shortlist.

Yesterday, Professor Wamidh Nadmi, a Sunni political scientist, said the U.S. was only interested in creating a ``pseudo-democracy''.

``I don't find myself very excited by June 30,'' he said. ``There won't be a transfer of real sovereignty. The timing has more to do with the U.S. presidential elections than the interests of Iraqis.'' He added: ``This is not a serious step towards either independence or democratisation.''

The U.N. has had no presence in Iraq since the devastating bomb attack last August on its Baghdad headquarters killed the special U.N. representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Over the weekend coalition officials admitted that, given the U.N.'s lack of office in Iraq, Mr. Brahimi would not be able to pick a new government in isolation, and would be heavily reliant on advice from both Washington and London.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Iraqis scoff at handover plan

Iran makes efforts to end Najaf standoff

Castro slams Peru, Mexico for supporting U.S.

Where roads don't connect but divide

Petersen, Balasingham to visit Sri Lanka

Death sentence reimposed

80 killed in Nigerian violence

Satellite monitor at Olympics

India remains on U.S. watch list

Four of Indian-origin family killed in road accident