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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Washington File

20 May 2003

Text: Bremer Says Security and Basic Services Top Priority in Iraq

(U.S. Administrator Views Conditions in Major Northern City) (580)
(begin text)
The following article by Specialist Robert Woodward of the 101st
Airborne Division
originally appeared on Army Link, an Internet news service of the U.S.
Army,
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/stories/.
Ambassador Bremer Meets with Mayor of Mosul
By Robert Woodward 
Army News Service, May 19, 2003
MOSUL, Iraq -- More than a hundred Iraqi farmers and soldiers hurled
demands at the Mosul government building where Ambassador L. Paul
Bremer III, U.S. reconstruction chief, met with retired Iraqi general
Ghamin Al-Basso, mayor of the city and the outlying Nineveh province
May 18.
The meeting was part of Bremer's effort as the new head of the Office
of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to boost the development
of interim governments in Iraq.
"Our coalition is intent on moving forward as quickly as we can to get
Iraq on the path to representative government," Bremer said. "You have
to deal first with the immediate job we just talked about, restoring
law and order and basic services, and getting people paid."
Under the guidance of its commander, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the
101st Airborne Division had previously helped broker a series of
political initiatives in the ethnically diverse northern territories,
including the Mosul Interim Government Convention of May 5, and the
Makhmor Accord of May 12, which resolved a heated dispute between
Arabs and Kurds over how the profits from this season's wheat and
barley crops would be shared.
Petraeus led Bremer on a tour of Mosul aboard UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopters and later briefed him on the stability operations of the
101st at division headquarters in what was once Saddam Hussein's
northernmost palace.
Bremer's arrival at the Civil Military Operations Center in downtown
Mosul was less hospitable, as a crowd of former Republican Guard
soldiers chanted from behind concertina wire and U.S. infantry
sentinels, "Yes, yes, yes to freedom; no, no, no to occupation."
The group, called the Free Military Officers of Iraq, asked for back
pay dating to January, the last time they were paid.
Some of the soldiers, like Ahmad Aziz, who was seriously wounded in
the last Persian Gulf War, were retired and living on a pension.
"We bleed for Iraq," he said. "We've come to the council five times
asking for help. What are they doing for us?"
Similar frustration was expressed by the homeless villagers from
Berstk, who held aloft a banner petitioning for the return of their
land and sheep, stolen by Kurdish peshmerga during the war.
Bremer heard the concerns of both groups and addressed them during a
press conference after the meeting.
"We have seen and heard here on the streets today, the voice of
freedom speaking from these demonstrators, free to express their views
in a way they have been denied for 30 years," Bremer said. "The top
priority of the coalition is to provide security for the Iraqi people
everywhere in the country, to assure that the basic services like
electricity, water, transportation, and food are resumed as quickly as
possible, and that we are able to pay the Iraqi civil servants what is
due to them."
According to Bremer, a "study group" visited Mosul last week and is
preparing a preliminary report on the displaced persons, such as the
Berstk villagers, in the region. There may be as many as 31 villages
in the area.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



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