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01 November 1999

Text: Ambassador Pickering's Speech on "The Recovery of Iraq"

(Presented at the Iraqi National Assembly in New York, Nov. 1) (2510)
"My message to the Iraqi people today is that the United States hears
you, and will actively support you not only until you are free, but
also thereafter in rebuilding a new, democratic Iraq," Ambassador
Thomas Pickering, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said
November 1.
In remarks on "The Recovery of Iraq" at the Iraqi National Assembly in
New York, Pickering said the strategic goal of the United States "is
not only the removal of a tyrant. Rather, our strategic goal is that
of the Iraqi people: the full recovery and reintegration of Iraq, by
yourselves and for yourselves, at the earliest possible moment."
Pickering told the Iraqi National Congress that it will demand great
effort and energy from them and from us to prove wrong those who are
skeptic about the INC's ability to maintain a unified front, to act
effectively as a political grouping and to mobilize strong worldwide
support. "I want to assure you that we will be there with you in that
effort."
"The new INC must become and is becoming the voice of the Iraqi people
and their resistance all over the country. But you must not merely
succeed as a propaganda organization. You must also become an
effective channel of Iraqi and international support to sustain the
resistance of the Iraqi people to its oppressors," Pickering said.
Following is the text of Pickering's remarks, as delivered:
(begin text)
THE RECOVERY OF IRAQ
Ladies and Gentlemen of the new, unified Iraqi National Congress:
My first purpose today is to congratulate you for the milestone which
you free Iraqis have reached these past several days. You have
established and strengthened an organization which is giving the Iraqi
people their voice; and that will help to recover Iraq for all Iraqis.
I offer the United States' warmest best wishes for the success of your
new leadership and membership. I hope that all of you here today soon
will be in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra, and all the points in
between to celebrate the national recovery of Iraq.
My second purpose today, as you return to your homes in Iraq and
around the world, is to make clear to you the purposes of the United
States toward Iraq, and the commitment with which we approach them.
The Clinton Administration wants to see Iraq take the rightful place
among the family of all nations; to see an Iraq at peace with its
neighbors; under international law, and responsive to the needs and
desires of its own people. The United States believes that the
national transition sought by Iraqis and their neighbors must come
from within Iraq; yet, we also believe that the world must respond to
the pleas of the Iraqi people for protection and for help. In Iraq,
the leadership acts not on behalf of its people but rather terrorizes
you and destroys all you need and value. Baghdad's repression of its
people is not simply an "internal" matter. The United Nations itself
in Security Council Resolution 688, has formally cited Baghdad's
internal oppression as a threat to international peace and security.
My message to the Iraqi people today is that the United States hears
you, and will actively support you not only until you are free, but
also thereafter in rebuilding a new, democratic Iraq.
Our strategic goal is not only the removal of a tyrant. Rather, our
strategic goal is that of the Iraqi people: the full recovery and
reintegration of Iraq, by yourselves and for yourselves, at the
earliest possible moment. The mere change of regime is guaranteed to
happen sooner or later. That inevitable event is only a necessary
condition for the less certain, and far more important, objective:
Recovery of Iraq's territorial integrity and national unity, of
dignity and prosperity of the Iraqi people; of a government that sees
its duty, under a constitution written by Iraqis, as serving its
people -- not the other way around.
We share the interest of Iraqis and your neighbors in the question
"Who will follow" the current regime. The problem is that we can
neither know the answer to this question, nor do much to influence the
emergence of a given personality or group on the happy day of what
those on the streets of Baghdad are calling simply, "The Change." The
current occupants of Baghdad's ruling palaces have done everything to
cut down anyone, except for a remaining few close family members,
whose name might answer that question. But you Iraqis who can speak
freely can and must tell Saddam and the world the answer to an even
more important question:
"What will follow The Change?"
Saddam Hussein answers with the biggest of all of the big lies. "After
me, the deluge."
But what we are hearing from you, from inside and outside Iraq, is
quite different: few, if any, Iraqis believe that what is to follow
could possibly be any worse than what they are enduring now. The naked
truth is that, in those portions of today's Iraq where the Baghdad
regime still holds sway, fear, oppression, and the official theft of
their patrimony now deluge Iraqis. After Iraq is freed from its
oppressors, the deluge in Iraq will be over.
Hence, we have adopted a multi-dimensional strategy both to support
you to hasten "The Change" in Baghdad, and to improve the odds that it
will come out right for the Iraqis, right for Iraq's neighbors, and
right for the world community. Backed by the Iraq Liberation Act, we
have established a "program to support a democratic transition in
Iraq." Through this program we are building the pressure on the regime
on all fronts to assist the internal Iraqi forces for change which you
all support and represent:
Economically:
-- First, for the present: we are doing all we can, through the United
Nations sanctions controls, to deprive the ruling clique of their
lifeblood -- cash. At the same time we are working through the UN to
compel Iraq's ruler to redirect the economic benefits of the national
oil wealth away from building more palaces, prisons, and weapons of
mass destruction, and toward food and medicine for all Iraqis.
-- More importantly, for the future: we can call upon other nations to
join us in pledging generous economic support for any successor
government as soon as it commits to rebuilding Iraq and its rightful
place in the world through upholding fully its international legal
obligations. This international support should include not merely
lifting of economic sanctions applying to the current outlaw regime,
including unfreezing of assets; but also:
- reconstruction grants and loans on generous terms;
- debt rescheduling and forgiveness;
- facilitation of foreign investment;
- and generous allocation of oil production quotas by OPEC.
-- Militarily: American and British pilots fly over Iraq every day to
enforce the no-fly zone designed to diminish Iraq's capabilities to
inflict more violence against its own people. These flights also deter
Baghdad's repetition of attacks against its neighbors. We retain
reserve air, ground, and naval forces in the region to respond to any
increased future requirements to deter and defeat such aggression by
Baghdad. Baghdad well understands our military "red lines." But I
would remind Baghdad in particular of UNSCR 949. We will enforce this
resolution, too, against any major movement of Iraqi forces southward,
whatever be their claimed purposes.
Diplomatically: we are working to persuade other countries to accept
the view of the Iraqi people that their putative leaders are to be
shunned as morally illegitimate, and to listen instead to the emerging
voices of free Iraqis. We are calling on all UN member states to press
Baghdad to comply with its obligations under all Security Council
Resolutions, most certainly including UNSCR 688. This condemns
Baghdad's repression of the civilian population as a threat to
international peace and security in the region. Moreover, it demands
access by international humanitarian organizations to all parts of
Iraq. The Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iraq, despite no
cooperation from Baghdad, has done a superb job. Any UN Rapporteur
must receive full cooperation from Baghdad. The objective must be full
time international monitoring of the human rights of Iraqis in all
parts of the country.
-- Legally: Ambassador Scheffer explained to you Friday evening our
support for an international campaign to bring to justice the
innermost circle of the current Baghdad regime. The world's only
indicted head of state, Slobodan Milosevic, can attest to Ambassador
Scheffer's success -- as can more than a hundred others indicted by
international tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, who dare now not
leave their own territory. Make no mistake: we are tightening the
international legal case that is closing in around the Baghdad regime.
-- Politically: we are supporting you free Iraqis, inside Iraq and
abroad, who are uniting and organizing to give hope to the Iraqi
people and to boost the resistance active inside Iraq, and even within
the Iraqi armed forces. For Saddam is right to fear that patriotic
members of the Iraqi armed forces in their hearts stand with you, the
Iraqi people, and not with him.
But we should be under no illusions that this will be a quick, easy,
or a simple task -- either for you or for us. We know and you know
that skepticism abounds about your ability to maintain a unified
front, and to act effectively as a political grouping. It will demand
great effort and energy from you and from us to prove those skeptics
wrong, and to mobilize strong worldwide support. I want to assure you
that we will be there with you in that effort.
By convening here, for the first time in seven years, the new, unified
Iraqi National Congress has demonstrated particular success on this
political front. In this milestone, you have accomplished not one but
three indispensable objectives:
-- First, you have shown that you are united not merely in opposition
to something negative, but more importantly, that you are united in
the positive goal that virtually all Iraqis support: nothing less than
the full recovery of your country:
- Free and prosperous under a pluralist government that serves its
people,
- sovereign within its internationally recognized borders from Zakho
to Faw,
- and at peace with itself and with all its neighbors, protected by
its national defense forces and their commitment to international law,
not weapons of mass destruction and aggression against neighbors.
-- Second, with the many delegates here from inside Iraq, you have
shown that the Iraqi National Congress and broader "Opposition" exist
and function not only in politics and in exile, but also in militant
resistance inside Iraq. The new INC must become and is becoming the
voice of the Iraqi people and their resistance all over the country.
But you must not merely succeed as a propaganda organization. You must
also become an effective channel of Iraqi and international support to
sustain the resistance of the Iraqi people to its oppressors.
-- Third, you have stood up as an expanding, dynamic, and responsible
institutional partner, for all those who would openly support the
aspirations of the Iraqi people.
Since the passage of the Iraqi Liberation Act, we have been
encouraging those Iraqis who share the goal of changing their country
in the directions you have described, to come together to constitute
just such an organized, accountable partner. Anticipating that you
would succeed as you are now doing, President Clinton notified
Congress just two weeks ago that we are ready to provide the Iraqi
people, through the new Iraqi National Congress, the first 5 million
dollars' worth of material and training support. We are beginning
immediately with the kinds of support that your movement most urgently
needs and can now most readily absorb. That is, we are offering the
basic information and operational infrastructure essential to an
effective international political movement, whose main weapon against
the oppressor must be the truth. And, the first free Iraqis, nominated
by the new Iraqi National Congress, are already en route to
participate in the training provided under the Iraq Liberation Act.
They, and we hope many others after them, will benefit from exactly
the same training which the Department of Defense offers to civilian
and military officers of friendly countries throughout the Middle
East.
Despite all the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people -- under
Saddam's deprivation of their food, medicine, and basic freedoms --
what you most need now, it seems to us, is the rekindling of hope. We
want captive Iraqis to know that your advocates include not only your
own free countrymen, but also foreign governments who recognize that
the Baghdad regime does not represent the Iraqi people in any moral or
legitimate sense.
For Saddam Hussein has sought to destroy all the proud and positive
elements of your national character and history -- among the very
resources most needed to restore Iraq to a future as bright as its
past. Beyond the natural resources yet remaining in your country,
Americans recognize that you Iraqis have much in your ancient and
recent past on which to rebuild:
-- Ancient Mesopotamia taught the world how to read and write;
discovered the basics of mathematics and astronomy; and developed the
notion of a "state."
-- Baghdad, the "City of Peace," was the center of the golden age of
the Empire of the Abbassids, linking humankind through easy travel,
and the spread of science and commerce from Gibraltar to China and
India.
-- The great Iraqi general Salahuddin, whom history records as both a
Tikriti and a Kurd, earned the respect even of his Crusader
adversaries for his skill, bravery, and chivalry.
-- Modern Iraq likewise was, until the Iran-Iraq war, a center of Arab
learning and culture, counting many Arab leaders among the alumni of
its universities, and some of the Arab world's best known poets,
painters, sculptors and scientists.
-- Until the state's persecutions and assassinations of the past
generation, the seminaries of Najaf were the most important centers of
theological learning in the Shiite branch of Islam.
-- Until the current regime bled the country and set brother against
brother, modern Iraq had a strong middle class, with healthy
traditions of tightly knit families, foreign travel, and generous
hospitality. Iraqis' lively political life included a relatively free
press, two houses of parliament, multiple political parties, and state
officials so accessible that they were known for walking among the
public in the streets.
-- Military service was once a respected profession, and your armed
forces once served the people as in any modern country. Iraqis tell us
nostalgically of displays of the patriotic unity of the Iraqi military
and people. You recall the crowds that gathered each sunset at the
flag- lowering ceremony in front of the Ministry of Defense, and at
the military orchestra concerts on Fridays in Baghdad's parks. Now,
the regime has created layer upon layer of "security services," as the
ruling family learns that its successive new branches of the armed
forces sympathize with the people, not with them.
You Iraqis who live in freedom -- whether in unoccupied northern Iraq
or outside the country -- bear the burden of reminding the world, and
captive Iraqis, of such a brilliant legacy. Increasingly, you are
working together to restore Iraq to its own people, to its rightful
place among free and prosperous nations, and to an upward historical
course. You proudly acknowledge this first and foremost as an Iraqi
national cause. But we also accept your message that Iraqis cannot
recover, heal, and rebuild your country on their own. We agree with
you free Iraqis that foreign friends of the Iraqi people must support
your efforts both before and during and after the change of regime in
Baghdad.
We believe that international support for and solidarity with the
Iraqi people are urgently needed. It is high time now to join free
Iraqis, through the Iraqi National Congress in preparing. The United
States will stand with you after the change of regime, as we stand
with you now in advancing the historic day of Iraq's transition.
Again, congratulations on your achievements today in the city of the
United Nations. I look forward to our next meeting -- may it be soon
and may it be in Baghdad.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)