Global Policy Forum

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Monte Reel

About 300 Iraqis representing most of the country's disparate religious, ethnic and political currents agreed today at a U.S.-organized meeting to convene a large conference within a month to select an interim administration that would assume responsibility for many day-to-day government functions under U.S. tutelage. The participants displayed little of the acrimony that has marked previous gatherings of Iraqis opposed to former president Saddam Hussein's authoritarian Baath Party rule. Instead, according to several of those present, they were united in their support for a democratic government that would respect human rights and allow religious freedom. Disagreements were polite but firm, they said, centering largely on the form of a transitional government and the period U.S. troops should remain in Iraq.

"We had an open process of discussion among Iraqis that has made me really optimistic about the future," said Feisal Istrabadi, an Iraqi-born lawyer from Chicago who participated in the discussions. "We heard a wide spectrum of views. This is something Iraqis have not been able to do in 45 years." The all-day meeting -- attended by the main U.S. representatives here, retired Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner and White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad -- was held in an auditorium where Hussein's rubber-stamp national assembly used to sit. By coincidence, the meeting was convened by U.S. occupation authorities on Hussein's 66th birthday, an occasion for celebration and adulation during his three-decade rule.

"Today, on the birthday of Saddam Hussein, let us start the democratic process for the children of Iraq," Garner told the delegates in opening remarks. The gathering provided the first timetable for creation of a transitional administration that will allow the Iraqi people to assume a measure of self-governance. As Garner and Khalilzad see it, the interim administration will be responsible for drafting a new constitution and forming a government, prerequisites for the eventual but still undefined withdrawal of U.S. forces occupying the country. The conference next month, slated to be held in northern Iraq, will be a forum for participants to more explicitly hash out the shape of the transitional government -- and vote on it. At that meeting, attendees likely will determine whether the interim government will have a sole president or prime minister, or whether an executive council will have authority. U.S. officials said it could resemble a nine-day meeting held in Germany in 2001 under U.S. and U.N. auspices to decide on a postwar government for Afghanistan. "There is now a time limit for the interim Iraqi government -- that is the main thing," said Ibrahim Olum, an Iraqi who has lived in England for the last 15 years. "They now need to determine exactly how that is done. I think they're one more conference from getting there."

Iraqis, exiles and residents alike have sought to put an interim government into place quickly to restore authority to Iraqi hands. U.S. officials are eager to get an interim government operating by June 3, when authorization for the current U.N. oil-for-food program expires. With a functioning administration, officials said, they can argue that Iraqis have a vehicle for receiving and spending oil money and no longer need the United Nations to do it. One key challenge, several of the participants said, could be selecting people to attend next month's meeting. With the shape of the transitional government hanging in the balance, various political, religious and ethnic groups almost certainly will seek to get an upper hand, perhaps by stacking the convention with their supporters.

Although several participants said a month of preparation is necessary to ensure selection of the best possible interim government, others argued that would be too long. Many of the attendees said they were concerned about a resurgence of looting and other illegal activity if the power vacuum persists, despite the U.S. military's assertion that it is technically in charge here. "We are very disappointed," said Hamid Khalidi, a Shiite Muslim tribal leader from Diwaniyah, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. "Four weeks is a very long time. We had hoped to see more concrete steps, particularly with regard to security. It is the most important issue for us."

"If the situation in Iraq was normal, four weeks would not be a long time," said Ali Abdul Hussein Kamuna, a representative from Karbala, a Shiite city about 50 miles south of the capital. "But the situation is not normal." Today's meeting was the first significant joint gathering of Iraqis who used to live in exile and those who have remained in the country. Although previous gatherings aimed at determining the shape of a new Iraqi government were dominated by exiles, including a meeting on April 15 near the ancient city of Ur in southern Iraq, about two-thirds of today's participants were people who stayed in Iraq under Hussein's rule.

U.S. officials did not release a list of attendees, but all were handpicked or carefully vetted by U.S. officials after being nominated by fellow Iraqis. The crowd appeared to represent a cross section of Iraqi society, with clerics in robes and turbans, tribal sheiks in cloaks and traditional headdress and exiles in expensive suits and ties. It included Sunni Muslims, Christians and several Shiite Muslims. In addition to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians also were represented. The number of Shiite delegates appeared small for a group that makes up 60 percent of the country's 24 million inhabitants. But all major groups had representatives, including the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest and best-armed Shiite exile group. The council, based in Iran, sent a low-level delegation. It had boycotted the Ur meeting, and high-ranking members refused to attend today's gathering in protest of its U.S. sponsorship.

"We are not excluding anyone from the process," Khalilzad, the White House envoy, said. "If anyone excludes themselves, it's up to them." Other parties and political organizations also did not send their top leaders, but settled for representation by lower-ranking delegates. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, and two key Kurdish leaders, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, did not attend. They have pledged to participate in a small meeting in Baghdad later this week that is not sponsored by the United States.

Also absent was Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, an exile who proclaimed himself mayor of Baghdad and began issuing orders to municipal employees. After refusing a U.S. order to cease representing himself as the city's leader, he was arrested Sunday night and transported to an undisclosed location inside Iraq. At least a few participants in today's meeting appeared to also have been self-styled leaders, although not as flagrantly as Zubaidi. Some of the attendees said they were asked to come to the meeting precisely because they had touted themselves as local leaders. Because the attendees were approved by U.S. officials, there was little of the angry criticism of the U.S. presence here that is almost immediately evident on Baghdad's streets. Several of the participants went out of their way to praise the U.S.-led war that ousted Hussein and ended his autocratic rule. "We are very grateful," said Mohammed Kassim, the leader of a group called the Islamic Unity Party. "We want them to stay to promote peace and security." But across the Tigris River, in downtown Baghdad, hundreds of Shiite demonstrators, many from the Shiite strongholds of Karbala and Najaf, filled a central square to demand the inclusion of Islamic scholars, whose main symbol of religious authority is called the Hawza. Many said they are suspicious of U.S. aims, suggesting that reconstruction officials are lining up Iraqi exiles for positions of power.

They held signs proclaiming "No to Chalabi" and "Yes for Hawza." "I believe they like to have people they can [get] along with, people who are weak with very little support among the people so they can steer them as they like," said Sadik Tarfi, a cleric from Karbala. "In such a situation, the true national will of the people will be subverted. This is the most modern method of democratic rule." Despite the criticism on the street, several participants said the meeting was far more representative than they had expected. Former exiles said they were pleased to meet fellow Hussein opponents who toughed it out inside the country, while those on the inside said they were happy to finally meet exiles they had only heard about on the radio.

"We have no problem with them," said Nasir Chadirji, a Baghdad lawyer whose father campaigned for democracy in the 1940s, when Iraq still was a monarchy. "They were speaking freely, saying what we couldn't say inside Iraq." Chadirji, 70, dressed in a gray suit, said he felt surprised as soon as the proceedings began today. "It was the first time I entered an open political meeting in Iraq in more than 35 years," he said. "Under Saddam, there was no way to speak like this."

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