25 May 1999
IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADERS PLEDGE A CHANGE OF REGIME IN BAGHDAD
(Unified opposition and international support will be needed) (760) By William B. Reinckens USIA Staff Writer Washington -- "We want to bring together all Iraqis and for one purpose -- to get our Iraq back," Hoshyar Zebari, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the newly created Iraqi National Congress' Interim Leadership Council, said May 25 at a discussion hosted by the Washington Institute on Near East Policy on a post-Saddam Hussein government in Iraq. Zebari and a dozen other Iraqi opposition leaders, who make up the major political opposition parties and ethnic groups inside Iraq, are meeting in Washington this week to iron out plans for a "post Saddam" government. The group met May 24 with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and senior government officials and received a commitment from the United States to publicize their cause. Today they met with ambassadors from the European Union. The State Department agreed that it would ask Congress in a few weeks to authorize a draw down on non-lethal Defense Department equipment and training under the Iraq Liberation Act. This is expected to entail matters such as buying computers, instruction in civil administration, advice on managing public affairs, and help in establishing offices in New York and overseas. "The only salvation for Iraq is a change in regime," said Dr. Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister and U.N. representative. "We have started on the road of unity in having these meetings," he said. The INC's goal is to be "credible and effective not only in Iraq but with our Arab neighbors and to those who support us," Pachachi said. We cannot pretend that we can change the regime from outside, Pachachi said. "Change has to come from within Iraq. ... All we can do outside is to be a catalyst." At a briefing May 24, the State Department announced that aid would go to the groups after an INC general assembly meeting in July, when the unified opposition elects its leaders. The INC Interim Leadership Council was formed in April in London and each of the leaders of the seven factions serves as leader on a rotating basis. Zebari said that one of the keys to the newly reconstituted group stemmed from the Kurdish reconciliation agreement hammered out in Washington last September. Pachachi also called for the United Nations to create a tribunal to try the Iraqi regime for Crimes Against Humanity. Even if it took some time to achieve, such a move would send a positive signal to opposition groups inside the country, he noted. "Every day we experience a continuous massacre in the center, south (of Iraq) and Baghdad itself" said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a Shi'ite leader. He reported that there is "widespread civil unrest throughout the South and several insurgencies" against Hussein's army throughout the country. Naturally these have provoked numerous reprisals against civilians. That is why his group is asking for a no-drive zone to be established in southern Iraq. Al-Rubaie also said that last week Saddam's forces killed 180 people in Kut. The INC also called for the international community "to protect the people of Iraq" from the terror of Saddam Hussein's regime and asked the United Nations and the United States to provide such protection if any plans for toppling the regime are to succeed. The INC said that it would also like to see the United Nations monitor the continuing human rights violations inside Iraq and to reinvigorate UN Resolution 688, which calls for Saddam Hussein not to repress his own people. Saleh Shaikhly, a spokesman for the INC Interim Leadership Council, characterized an INC delegation's recent visit to Egypt as "very, very successful" and rebutted an Asharq AL-Awsat story stating that Egypt had rejected INC plans to hold its assembly meeting in Cairo. Also at the luncheon, the Iraqi opposition leaders gave some insight into how Iraq might be governed once the regime of Saddam Hussein is toppled. There would be a six-month "provisional government" established with people from inside Iraq who fought for the removal of Saddam and those opposition groups who worked outside of Iraq. Political parties would be allowed. Iraqis would have the right to assembly; a free press would be ensured; the United Nations would be asked to conduct and supervise the election of a Constitutional Assembly so it could vote on a Constitution. "Right now our mission is diplomatic, political and media activities," said one of the INC organizers.
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