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18 April 2003

Iraqis Took First Step toward Democracy at Nasiriyah, Grossman Says

(April 16 interview with Free Iraqi Television) (2550)
The gathering of Iraqis and former Iraqi exiles in the southern Iraqi
city of Nasiriyah April 15 to begin discussions on the future
government marked the first step towards a democratic, multiethnic
Iraq that is "without weapons of mass destruction, has territorial
integrity, and is at peace with its neighbors," State Department Under
Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman said.
"[P]eople in Iraq yesterday had the opportunity to see what democracy
is all about and to start shaping their own lives, and to have some
say about the way that they would be governed and they would live,"
Grossman told Free Iraqi Television in an April 16 interview.
The under secretary challenged the view that bringing democracy to
Iraq is an impossible task because it has no historical foundation in
the region.
"I have come to believe that people should not be kept from a
democratic experiment because of their culture or their geography or
their religion. Everybody has a right, it seems to me, to have the
chance to have some democracy," he said.
Grossman characterized democracy in Iraq as "a system in which people
have a right to determine their own future and determine their own
leaders and determine their own priorities." He said the structure of
the future Iraqi government would not necessarily be modeled on the
U.S., British, Swiss or another country's system.
Grossman said the United States will support the process, but
underlined that the Iraqis themselves will create their government and
choose their leaders.
Turning to humanitarian aid, the under secretary said President Bush
signed a bill April 16 which provided $2.4 billion for humanitarian
relief and reconstruction relief for Iraq. The effort has already
begun, he said, with food and medical supplies on the way, and "many
other countries wish to participate as well."
He said the military operations in the near term will focus on
establishing security and stability and on uncovering weapons of mass
destruction.
Grossman said the United States wanted to see the United Nations
become involved not only in Iraq's humanitarian issues, but also "to
participate in some fashion in the creation of the future Iraqi
Government."
He said a U.N. representative had been invited to the April 15 meeting
in Nasiriyah, and he hoped the international body would endorse the
civilian administration for Iraq.
Grossman said the United States is also working with the Iraqi people
to get the country's oil production back on line for the benefit of
its citizens, and repeated the Bush administration's stance that
Iraq's oil and its other natural resources "belong to the Iraqi
people."
Following is a transcript of Under Secretary Grossman's interview with
Free Iraqi Television:
(begin transcript)
Interview by Free Iraqi Television
Marc Grossman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
Washington, DC 
April 16, 2003
QUESTION: Mr. Grossman, thank you very much.
UNDER SECRETARY GROSSMAN: Thank you very much. It's an honor to be
here.
QUESTION: Thank you. I would like to ask you some questions that we
think Iraqis inside Iraq would like to know answers to them.
Yesterday, the -- some Iraqi opposition leaders have met in Nasiriyah,
and it was a successful meeting by all means; and they said they were
committed to democracy, and General Jay Garner was there. And what's
your impression? What happened and what do you expect the next thing
will happen?
UNDER SECRETARY GROSSMAN: First let me say what an honor it is to be
here with you, and I appreciate the opportunity to answer your
questions and to speak to people in Iraq.
I believe the meeting that took place yesterday in Nasiriyah was the
down payment on exactly what our President and the people of Iraq
want, which is an Iraq that is democratic, multiethnic, without
weapons of mass destruction, has territorial integrity, and is at
peace with its neighbors. And I think all of those things were part of
the event yesterday in Nasiriyah.
When you, sir, say that a number of Iraqi opposition figures came to
that meeting, yes, that's true. But also, a number of Iraqis who, for
20, 25 years have been waiting for the chance to be part of a
democracy; they came too. And people in Iraq yesterday had the
opportunity to see what democracy is all about and to start shaping
their own lives, and to have some say about the way that they would be
governed and they would live. And I think that is a wonderful
opportunity and something we would like to encourage more and more
Iraqis to participate in.
QUESTION: And how do you see the next page will unfold? Like, there
are still military activities inside Iraq and there are some non-Iraqi
elements who are still fighting in some pockets in Iraq. How do you
see the next page will unfold?
UNDER SECRETARY GROSSMAN: With respect, I think there would be three
parts to my answer. First, as you say, there is going to be a
continuing military effort in Iraq because there needs to be security
and there needs to be stability for the people of Iraq. And very
importantly also, sir, there needs to be a continued focus on weapons
of mass destruction.
One of the things that we have obviously been doing with our military
forces and coalition military forces has been defeating the regime of
Saddam Hussein in order to free the Iraqi people. But I believe in the
next phase, or "in the next pages," as you put it, there will also be
an effort to get at these weapons of mass destruction so that these
things don't burden the Iraqi people in the future.
The second new phase, or "next page," as you put it, will be the very
important effort to bring humanitarian relief and reconstruction to
the Iraqi people. As you know, there's already a large number of
trucks and ships coming to Iraq with food and with medicine; and that
effort has already begun. A number of countries have offered to put up
new hospitals in Iraq. But there's more to come.
President Bush, today, signed a bill with $2.4 billion for
humanitarian relief and reconstruction relief for Iraq. And many other
countries wish to participate as well. So I believe the Iraqi people
will very soon see humanitarian assistance and reconstruction
assistance come into Iraq and be part of their lives.
And then third would be the issue that you and I started with, which
is the political issue. And I believe what will happen is after the
successful meeting in Nasiriyah, there will be other meetings like
that in other parts of Iraq. And soon Iraqis will be able to give us
guidance about how to move forward and create an Iraqi interim
authority. And that authority will begin to allow Iraqis to have
sovereignty over their country and in a way that Iraqis will choose;
they will create an Iraqi Government.
So I think it's a very exciting prospect. But there's military work to
be done, there's humanitarian and reconstruction work to be done, and
there's, very importantly, the ability of Iraqis to govern themselves.
That's an objective, as well.
QUESTION: And you said the -- there is, humanitarian aid is -- has
already started to reach the Iraqi people. As you know, millions of
Iraqis have left Iraq because of the Saddam Hussein's oppressive
regime. And we all know that some of the infrastructures of Iraq have
sustained some damage due -- because of the war. And people do -- some
people -- most of the people do not have communications, like
telephone communications with their people inside Iraq. How long do
you think this will continue?
MR. GROSSMAN: No one knows, obviously, about these dates. But all I
can say is that our objective is to try to deal with some of these
problems as quickly as possible. First, let me say, as you did, that
so many Iraqis who are outside of Iraq deserve our great thanks for
their courage in keeping this idea of Iraqi freedom alive for so many
years. And so we thank the people from outside of Iraq.
And now, also, we have to allow people inside of Iraq to show their
democratic desires. And I think the interesting thing will be to watch
the groups of Iraqis "get married," in a sense, and be part of one
society as they move forward into this political universe. But as you
say, so much of the destruction that has taken place was really not
the responsibility of the last three weeks when American forces and
coalition forces liberated Iraq. So much of that destruction is the
responsibility of Saddam Hussein, and so much of the diversion of
resources into palaces and weapons of mass destruction is the
responsibility of Saddam Hussein. So there's a big job to do.
You know that General Jay Garner, whom the Iraqi people were
introduced to yesterday in Nasiriyah -- he will move in quickly now,
behind our forces. And I believe that General Garner and his team,
which is a team made up of the coalition and many people from the
United States Government and also many Iraqi-Americans, will bring the
benefits of this liberation to the Iraqi people as quickly as
possible. And if that's new telephones and a new system, then that's
what they will work on. But we're committed to reconstruction and
humanitarian assistance. But we're very committed, as well, that these
decisions be returned to Iraqis. We're not there to run Iraq. Iraqis
should run Iraq.
QUESTION: I'm talking about commitment. Freedom have -- Iraqi people
have to have started to taste the freedom in Iraq, and we've seen some
demonstrations in Nasiriyahh. And these are very promising signs that
Iraqis have never tasted before. But democracy in Iraq, is it also one
of the objectives of the U.S., of the U.S. Government in Iraq?
MR. GROSSMAN: Yes, sir. I believe that all of the statements of our
President, our Secretary of State, our Secretary of Defense, our Vice
President, all of us, have always stressed the importance of democracy
in Iraq. And I would say to those people who argued for months, "Oh,
this isn't worth it. In Iraq there's no history of it," I have come to
believe that people should not be kept from a democratic experiment
because of their culture or their geography or their religion.
Everybody has a right, it seems to me, to have the chance to have some
democracy.
Now, does this mean it has to be a democracy like American democracy
or Swiss democracy or British democracy? No. This is something for
Iraqis to decide. But what I mean is a system in which people have a
right to determine their own future and determine their own leaders
and determine their own priorities. That's democracy and that is
something we believe in so deeply for the Iraqi people. So when I
started this conversation with you, and I say that we're looking for
an Iraq that's democratic, multi-ethnic, that has no weapons of mass
destruction, has territorial integrity, at peace with its neighbors,
that's what we believe.
QUESTION: And do you think the freedom that the Iraqis have started to
see in their lives need to be protected by the U.S. in the near
future? Iraq is surrounded by dictatorship regimes and we all hope
that the next government in Iraq is democratic, but do you think
Iraqis will find themselves, one day need to -- to topple and destroy
another statues for another dictator in Iraq?
MR. GROSSMAN: I certainly hope not. I certainly don't believe that
American men and women and British men and women and Australians and
Poles who have fought for the freedom of Iraqis, and Iraqis who have
fought over the years for the freedom of Iraqis -- I don't think their
desire is to replace one dictator with another dictator. That's not
our purpose, and I can't imagine it's the purpose of the Iraqi people.
QUESTION: Some people, some people think -- some people believe that
the U.S. presence in Iraq is for oil. Is it for oil?
MR. GROSSMAN: No. I can't imagine anything that's farther from the
truth. Our leaders have said, and we are working hard on this, that
the oil of Iraq, and in fact all of the natural resources of Iraq,
belong to the Iraqi people. And so I'm very pleased that our forces
were able quickly to secure the oil fields in the north and in the
south. And I believe we will very quickly be working with Iraqis to
get this production back on line for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
So of all of the charges that I hear about what it is that we're
doing, the one that is least true, that rings the least with me, is
somehow the idea that we would have done this for Iraq's oil.
QUESTION: How do you see the United Nations' role in the future Iraq?
MR. GROSSMAN: President Bush has said that the United Nations has a
vital role to play in the future of Iraq.
We would like the United Nations to be quickly involved in the
humanitarian issues, with UN agencies like the United Nations
Children's agencies and the World Food Program. They have such an
important role to play in the future of this humanitarian development
and humanitarian effort in Iraq. We would also like the United Nations
to participate in some fashion in the creation of the future Iraqi
Government. For example, we invited the United Nations to send a
representative to the wonderful meeting in Nasiriyah yesterday.
We would also like the United Nations, as the leaders said in the
Azores a month or so ago, to endorse the civilian administration for
Iraq. So we believe there's a role to play and we are now working with
our Security Council partners to try to decide how best to do that.
We're very pleased that the UN Secretary General has appointed a
special representative. So there's a UN role here.
QUESTION: Some people think that the U.S., U.S. Government is
supporting handpicked, Iraqi exiles who will -- who are getting
empowered in Iraq. Are there, are there Iraqis or Iraqi parties or
organizations that the U.S. do not want to have the role in the Future
of Iraq and participating democratically?
MR. GROSSMAN: We're certainly not interested, as our President has
said, in anointing anyone. And we're not picking the people who should
be the leaders of Iraq. That is a job for the Iraqi people to do.
Yesterday, in organizing this meeting in Nasiriyah, what did we do? We
brought people who were outside of Iraq, brought people inside of
Iraq, put them together in one place and let them begin to decide and
contemplate what should be the future of Iraq.
That is not the business of the United States. That is the business of
the Iraqi people.
QUESTION: Thank you very much.
MR. GROSSMAN: Thank you, sir.  I appreciate it.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)