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Brown heckled over Iraq

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Gordon Brown, Britain's Prime Minister-in-waiting, had his first taste of public anger over Iraq when he was heckled at a Labour Party meeting on Sunday, forcing him to admit that it had been a very "divisive and difficult issue.''

Mr. Brown, who has never publicly criticised Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq, was addressing party members in Coventry when a woman interrupted him and shouted, "Gordon Brown, get the troops out.'' She was quickly bundled out of the hall as a flustered Mr. Brown looked on.

Outside, a group of protesters waved anti-war banners and raised slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of British troops.

The atmosphere inside the hall remained tense as another party member bluntly told Mr. Brown that the country had had "enough of the war'' and asked him when he planned to bring the troops back home.

"Out there, and everybody knows this, the elephant in the room is that this war has gone on too long. Everybody has had enough of the war. We have to take decisive action. When are you going to bring those troops back home?'' he asked.

No assurance

Mr. Brown refused to give any assurance, saying that he would visit Iraq and "look at the situation on the ground''.

"I will come back and say what I think is happening there,'' he said pointing out that in any case the number of British troops in Iraq was "going down''.

"The number of troops that started off was 44,000 and there are now just 7,000 — and that number continues to go down,'' he said but acknowledged that more needed to be done to win the "hearts and minds'' of Iraqis.

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