01 July 2003
Bremer Says Iraqis Do Not Support Attacks on Coalition and Infrastructure
(Says steady transformation taking place in Iraq) (550) By Vicki Silverman Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, said the United States is intent on capturing or killing the "die-hard opponents to freedom" launching attacks against coalition forces, Iraqi civilians and Iraqi infrastructure. Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, July 1, Bremer said the attacks are taking place amid a steady transformation in Iraq. "Day by day, conditions in Iraq continue to improve, freedom becomes more and more entrenched and the dark days of the Ba'athist regime are further and further back in people's memories. So, those few remaining individuals who have no desire or ability to fit into this new, free Iraq, not surprisingly, are becoming more and more desperate," he said. Bremer said that elements of the former regime -- Fedayeen Saddam and special security organizations -- plus international terrorists are behind the attacks. He said Iraq's new elected local leaders and the Iraqi people do not support the attacks. "In my visits this weekend to Kirkuk, Sulimaniyah, Erbil and Mosul, I was interested to see that elected leaders in all of those places and in town councils heartily condemned these attacks as, indeed, being attacks against the interests of the Iraqi people. And I believe that's the view of most Iraqis," Bremer told reporters. He said the coalition is doing its best to protect key infrastructure nodes and restore damaged facilities as quickly as possible for the sake of Iraqi civilians. "We have got more power today in Baghdad than we've had in 10 days," he said. "We have to remember that the infrastructure in this country was disastrously underrepaired, undermaintained and under-invested-in for 40 years, and that's what makes the infrastructure vulnerable to particular attacks on particular places. The administrator said the coalition is making progress in transforming Iraq's economy. "In the last six weeks, the coalition has spent almost a billion dollars on several thousand projects in Iraq, such as irrigation and construction projects," Bremer said. "On the irrigation scheme, we have already hired 3,000 workers, and they have cleared over 350 kilometers of irrigation channels. By the end of the month, we expect to have 50,000 men and women at work on over 5,000 kilometers of irrigation channels. On the construction fund, you'll recall I announced a $100 million construction fund. We have already committed over 50 percent of the $100 million dollars on some 150 projects throughout the country," Bremer said. The administrator said he plans to have an Iraqi interim political council established by mid-July, which will launch a process to draft a new constitution. He said he is traveling widely around the country in an effort to reach out to a broad range of potential Iraqi leaders. "I look forward to working alongside the council within a couple of weeks and, shortly thereafter, to seeing the constitutional process launched," he said. Ambassador Bremer said he is sensitive to concerns voiced by Iraq's Shiite leader Ayatollah Sistani that the constitutional process should be seen to be legitimate. "It should grow out from the Iraqi people, and it should be approved by the Iraqi people," Bremer said. (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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