Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4-11-03

TYPE=SPECIAL REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ OPPOSITION

NUMBER=9-12

BYLINE=WILLIAM CHIEN

DATELINE=KUWAIT

/// Sound is in DALET/House Shared/Friday/"9-WCH-Kuwait-Iraq Opposition".///

MC: Iraqi opposition parties are preparing to establish an interim governing authority for the post-war Iraq . Voice of America's William Chien interviewed Feisal Chalabi, spokesman for Iraq's main opposition party and the nephew of party leader Ahmed Chalabi.

TEXT: The leader of the Iraq National Congress (INC), Ahmed Chalabi, and leaders of four Iraqi opposition parties are attempting to meet in the Iraq's southern city of Nasiriyah Tuesday (4-14) to discuss the establishment of an interim governing authority. INC spokesman Feisal Chalabi stresses the diversity of the organization he represents.

///F. CHABALI ACT///

There are plenty of Iraqi opposition groups and many of them are represented within the Iraqi National Congress because it is an umbrella group. It has been created as an umbrella that's why it's called a 'Congress.' We have different political parties with different political objectives that agree, at least, on one platform which is bringing democracy to Iraq and then submitting the choice to Iraqi people.

/// END ACT///

The participants are expected to discuss the formation of a post-war interim governing authority. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says U-S envoy Zalmay Khalilzad will chair the conference.

Mr. Ahmed Chalabi is currently in an American-controlled region inside Iraq. What inspired him and other opposition leaders to return to Iraq?

///ACT F. CHALABI///

To put an Iraqi face to all the reconstruction period and then we would like to start working as soon as possible. (We do think) that the vacuum of power left (by) the Iraqi authorities and Saddam's regime should be filled as soon as possible.

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It is still not clear which Iraqi political organizations will attend the summit. Even the INC does not know the numbers of people it will send.

///ACT F. CHALABI///

I do not have the numbers as you can image we do not distribute cards for our members inside Iraq as it would be very dangerous for them to have them. We've got plenty of supporters . more and more support now and you will see the real support that we will get in Iraq.

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Mr. Chalabi suggests this initial planning session will discuss the "roadmap" decided last month that coordinates the efforts of an Iraqi provisional governing authority with those of the coalition forces. Will these different groups be able to work together?

///ACT CHALABI///

At least after more than 30 years of Iraqi opposition, between the Iraqi oppositions have learned to achieve and to obtain consensus between each other in order to move on. And that's really very important and that's the major contribution that Iraqi opposition is going to give back to the Iraqi people is how to reach consensus. Very soon you'll see some parties being molding into each other and forming parties and definitely very soon you'll see that style of western politics forming.

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Mr. F. Chalabi told VOA he hopes the United Nations will be limited to providing aid and expertise to the rebuilding of Iraq. He said this is because the INC believes that several members of the U.N. Security Council could have vested interests in the fallen Ba'ath Party.

The INC spokesman said he wishes to see former Saddam supporters treated like Germans and Japanese were after the Second World War. He adds that those who are willing to cast off their former connections to the Ba'ath Party will be welcome back with the people of Iraq.

///ACT F. CHALABI///

"Of course, we have been pursuing and promoting a vast program of de-Baathification which is inspired from what happened in Japan in 1945 and what happened in Germany in 1945 where you have the Nazi party which was in all parts of the German administration. The Baath Party has infiltrated all layers of the civil administration in Iraq and it constitutes a danger for democracy. So it's very delicate, it's not a very clear line on how things will happen. But we hope to at least get rid of the Baath Party as soon as possible. You can image that, for example, in terms of threats to democracy, the Baath Party, if someone just tries and reorganizes the network of the Baath Party he could very easily seize the power and hijack the situation and do the same things. So that's why we're very worried about it.

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Mr. Chalabi adds that Iraq has a lot of work to do in the next six months, including writing a constitution and creating an electoral process complete with trained personnel. He states that only a minor portion of the work is political, while the rest deals with rebuilding Iraq.

///ACT CHALABI ///

Actually in the next six months, I see that there is a lot of work and a lot of technical and reconstruction work where the political leadership has not much work. The main work of the political leadership is to be able to draft a constitution and to submit it to the Iraqi people. In all parties there's no discrimination. All parties will be involved in that. All persons that really want to participate in the political future of Iraq will be able to do that. And this is the most important part. On the other side you have very specific skills, technical skills and visionary skills to rebuild the economy and rebuild all of Iraq. And that has nothing to do with politics. This real hard work and hard labor in order to get the country standing up again.

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