Sunday, Jun 06, 2004
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By Vaiju Naravane
CAEN (NORMANDY), JUNE 5. As the U.S. President, George Bush, landed in Paris, the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings in France got under way on the beaches of Normandy. In a dramatic parachute drop, British and U.S. forces re-enacted the capture by the Americans of the tiny village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first to be liberated from the Nazis. The atmosphere here has been both festive and solemn, with visitors and inhabitants stressing the need for remembrance so that history does not repeat itself. Over 20 heads of state and Government will attend the formal ceremonies tomorrow. These include Mr. Bush, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and, for the first time the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi has not been asked because Italy was an ally of Nazi Germany at the time. Britain's Prince Charles paid tribute to the 90 paratroopers who flew in darkness aboard three wooden gliders and crash-landed just after midnight on or close to the Pegasus bridge across the Orne river in a surprise attack which has entered the annals of military history. They were among 380 British gliders which floated into Normandy that night. Other parachute drops were scheduled to commemorate the US 101st Airborne, which suffered serious losses while attempting to secure the western flank near Omaha Beach. Four thousand Allied troops were killed on the five beaches — codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — on the first day and another 55,000 were to die in the Normandy campaign. Mr. Bush who arrived here after a 36-hour visit to Italy, is to hold talks with the French President, Jacques Chirac, that are expected to focus on a new draft U.N. Security Council resolution on the June 30 transfer of power in Iraq. Relations between Paris and Washington have been strained for more than a year over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, which Mr. Chirac staunchly opposed. This is the first time the two men have seen each other since September. They will hold a joint press conference followed by a working dinner. Before he left Italy, Mr. Bush attempted to reassure people that the U.S. fully intended to hand over power to the new Iraqi authorities. He said he was confident that the United Nations Security Council would soon adopt a new resolution on the transfer of power to Iraq. The United States and Britain presented a new draft resolution to members of the Security Council on Friday designed to ease the concerns of some members over the handover of sovereignty to Iraq scheduled for June 30. The U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan's special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi was in Paris for talks and held discussions with Mr. Chirac, it is reliably learnt. The French Foreign Office spokesman told journalists France continued to maintain that the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty must be genuine, effective and credible. "This is an important issue, and discussions are continuing on it in the Security Council. Our objective is for the Iraqi government after June 30 to be completely sovereign, completely credible, especially in the eyes of public opinion in the country, Iraqi opinion. So we feel that a number of conclusions should be drawn in the mechanisms which are to be put in place, and that's what's being discussed now," the spokesman said. It was these reservations that Mr. Bush attempted to address at his press conference before leaving Rome. "I am confident we will get a Security Council Resolution soon," Mr. Bush said. He added that he felt "a spirit of unity" among his partners on Iraq and a willingness on their part to work with the new Iraqi government, stressing: "It's important for me to remind people that there will be a transfer of full sovereignty to the Iraqi people." Mr. Bush's meetings with his French counterpart will be the real test of that.
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