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Marching in Baghdad, Thousands of Shiites

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By Neela Banerjee

New York Times
May 19, 2003

Thousands of Shiite Muslims protested here in the capital today, demanding that the United States turn over power to an Iraqi government and withdraw its troops from the country.

Discontent may also be spreading on a smaller scale through government ministries whose work is essential to restoring basic services, like supplying fuel and electricity to the country. About 20 employees from the Oil Ministry protested in front of its headquarters today demanding the ouster of former officials who were once members of President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, the latest in a series of protests by oil workers over the issue.

The employees of the State Oil Marketing Organization, which exported oil under the United Nations oil-for-food program, plan to hold elections at their offices on Wednesday for top management posts — and to rid their agency of former Baathists. Directors of several departments at the electricity commission, responsible for fixing the damage to the electricity grid that has left much of Baghdad without power, said Sunday that they wanted to hold a similar vote.

The protest by Shiites was among the strongest expressions yet of the growing dissatisfaction among Iraqis about the pace of change here. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators marched from a Sunni Muslim mosque in the north of the capital to a spot near a Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiya quarter, carrying placards that read, "No, no, no U.S.A.," Reuters reported. They chanted, "We will not sell this country."

Four Marine crewmen were killed today when their CH-46 helicopter crashed into a waterway near Karbala in Iraq, Defense Department officials said. They said the four marines were the only people aboard the twin-engine troop transport when it went down.

Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a marine and a Defense Department spokesman, said there was no indication that ground fire was involved. In Vienna today, worries about the continuing lawlessness in Iraq were sounded by Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"I am deeply concerned by the almost daily reports of looting and destruction at nuclear sites," Dr. ElBaradei said in a statement. He said he was particularly concerned "about the potential radiological safety and security implications of nuclear and radiological materials that may no longer be under control."

The majority of Muslims in this country of 24 million people are Shiites, and they were harshly repressed under Mr. Hussein. Their protests appeared to be linked to worries among Iraqi political groups that the new United States civil administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, may be pulling back from the previous American pledge to turn over control of the country quickly to an interim Iraqi government.

A group of former Iraqi generals who defected to the West and are now working with American forces here told Reuters that they believed that Mr. Hussein was still alive and in hiding in Iraq, waiting to rally his supporters should the American effort to govern the country run into more serious trouble.

"Time has always been the backbone of Saddam's strategy," said Saad Obeidi, a former major general and psychological warfare specialist assisting the American military. "He is a man who knows the psychology and sociology of Iraq. The looting and disorder we see now fall in his favor. "Americans have to act fast," he said. "People will forget all about the Baath Party if order and prosperity return."

The former Iraqi generals were quoted as saying that they thought Mr. Hussein was relying on hard-core loyalists to spread disorder under American rule. Last week, Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of American land forces in Iraq, said at a news conference that he thought that die-hard supporters of the ousted Iraqi leader were adding to the chaos on Iraq's streets, but did not go so far as to speculate on Mr. Hussein's condition or activities.

A former Iraqi intelligence agent and brother-in-law of President Hussein on the American most-wanted list of Iraqi officials is now in United States custody, according to a statement issued today by the United States Central Command. The agent, Luay Khayrallah, who was also a companion of Mr. Hussein's son Uday, has been held by the Americans since Friday, the statement said, although the circumstances of his arrest were not detailed.

This morning, demonstrators at the Oil Ministry, under the watchful eye of American troops, unfurled banners demanding pay increases and the ouster of Baath Party members, some of whom they branded as criminals. Across Baghdad, many Iraqis have pushed for removing former Baathists from their old posts, and on Sunday a group of demonstrators pulled down a statue of the founder of the Baath Party, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

The chief of the ministry's oil industry maintenance department, a former Baath Party member, was dismissed recently, protesters said, after workers went to the ministry's interim chief executive, Thamir Ghadhban.

Some ministry employees said that not all Baath party members should be purged. It was unclear whether Mr. Ghadhban had been a Baath Party member and he could not be reached for comment. Many protesters said they were not seeking his removal. But others grumbled about his appointment by the Americans. "For the time being, the Americans chose him," said Haider Faisal, a ministry electrician, "but we didn't choose him."

At the State Oil Marketing Organization, employees are disgruntled by the decision by the acting director general, Ali Rajat Hassan, to hold on to some old Baath Party members. Workers there plan to hold in-house elections on Wednesday.

"He made arrangements that were absolutely disastrous," said one Oil Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He kept old people from the party as heads of departments and they appointed some not-so-desirable people on top of that."

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.