16 April 2003
Experts at U.S. Peace Institute Call for Quick Deployment of Military Police in Iraq
(Also recommend incentives to employ Iraqi weapons scientists) (820) By Elizabeth Kelleher Washington File Special Correspondent Washington -- Experts at the U.S. Institute of Peace have called for quick deployment of military police, long-term commitment to building political systems and incentives to keep Iraqi weapons scientists inside the country. At an institute seminar in Washington April 16, the speakers gave vigorous prescriptions for rebuilding Iraq's legal and political systems and for barring the spread of its weapons to terrorists. The institute is a non-governmental institution established by Congress in 1984 with the mission to help resolve international conflicts. Participating in the discussion by phone from Kuwait was George F. Ward Jr., who manages U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq. That group is headed by retired Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner who has been charged with the task of installing an interim government in Iraq. Ward's assessment that the overall humanitarian picture was "better than perhaps the one we've been seeing on TV" was couched by acknowledgment that a crisis could erupt if security problems prevented workers from getting to jobs or if fuel problems led to water shortages and consequent health alerts. Those concerns served as a backdrop to panelists' recommendations. Robert M. Perito, a former official at the U.S. Department of Justice and an adviser to the institute, argued that the notion that violent outbreaks will be short-lived is misguided and said , "U.S. forces were not prepared" for civil unrest. Citing violence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul April 16, where several Iraqis were killed in clashes with Marines, he said that post-war security would be "difficult, confusing and dangerous for everyone involved." Nevertheless, he said, the United States had the ability to effect a "guided transition." Perito recommended immediate steps to keep order while Garner's group takes stock of the legal situation. First, he suggested more rapid deployment of U.S. military police. Second, he called on the United States to increase pressure on coalition partners to deploy constabulary forces to deal with civil disorder. Finally, he said the United States should send teams of judicial experts, civil police and civilian constables to help Iraqis over a longer time-period to establish the rule of law and democracy. The Iraqi police "lost many functions under Baath Party rule," he said. Similarly, the judiciary was "shoved aside" as ad hoc courts were created. He called the regime's system of laws a "legal jumble." Speaking about developing the future political system in Iraq, Ray S. Jennings, a former adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development and a senior fellow at the peace institute, advised a slower movement toward democracy than is generally expected. He said it could take five years to set the stage for democracy and that elections should not happen until at least 12 months from now. He voiced skepticism about Garner's plan to achieve a political transition in Iraq in 90 days. "There are no short cuts," Jennings said, to this "long and difficult work in changing people's relationship with a governing authority." After decades of an authoritarian regime, he said, it will be hard to get citizen participation. He believes that once security is established, the interim U.S.-led government will have to model democratic principles for some time. The coalition, he said, should spend 12 months providing medical supplies, water and jobs and building infrastructure with "community participation." "This is a psychological process as well as a physical process," he summed up. Jonathan B. Tucker, a former biological weapons inspector in Iraq and a senior fellow at the institute, suggested that if the United States leads the search for weapons of mass destruction without calling in the United Nations, it should develop a system to split any samples it finds and send them to other countries -- Finland, Switzerland and Sweden, for instance -- to verify. He expects that eventually the United Nations will have to go back to declare the country clean of such weapons and lift sanctions. Tucker warned that Iraqi weapons scientists might take samples to other countries in the region developing chemical weapons or even to terrorists. "Since Iraqi weapons scientists are now unemployed and presumably impoverished...they could be recruited," he explained. "It would indeed be a terrible irony if the war to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons to terrorists inadvertently brought about that very result." Tucker suggested creation of an international science and technology center in Baghdad, similar to those in Moscow and Kiev, that were established in the aftermath of the breakup of Soviet Union, to employ former weapons scientists in peaceful projects. Summing up the tone of the event, Jennings urged coalition forces "go the distance" to ensure peace. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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