Disparate voices of Iraq emerge from silence

[IndianaGreen]

Disparate voices of Iraq emerge from silence

New governing council to send delegates with widely different views to address UN security council

Jonathan Steele
Tuesday July 15, 2003
The Guardian

Thousands of Iraqis marched through Baghdad yesterday, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the overthrow of the monarchy and calling for the restoration of national independence.

Many carried pictures of Abdul Karim Kassem, the army general and 1958 coup leader who nationalised Iraq's British-owned oil company and was overthrown five years later in a CIA-backed plot supported by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.

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The last invitation went to the Communist party, whose leader Hamid Majeed Mousa only decided on Friday to join the council after saying he would not. "We decided to take part because of the extra powers given to it," Kawa Besarani, a party spokesman, said.

These include oversight of security. Mr Bremer has accepted that the council will be in charge of rebuilding Iraq's armed forces and police. Some in the council want US and British troops to leave the cities so that Iraqi forces can gradually replace them and leave security in Iraqi hands.

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Other parties on the council, including the Communists and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the main Shia groups, would favour a United Nations peace-keeping force to take over from the coalition so as to give foreign troops legitimacy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,998433,00.html