NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND 7115 South Boundary Boulevard MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101 Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 |
April 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-04-203
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BAGHDAD MEETING POOL REPORT (CONSOLIDATED)
This is pool copy from Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki at the Baghdad political meeting. It hasn't started yet and doesn't look like starting very soon.
Meeting hasn't started yet. looks like being delayed till maybe 10ish according to Reuters correspondent, judging by how few people showed up so far...
-delegates starting to gather
-dozens so far in modern conference centre next to rashid hotel.
-under heavy us security, tanks outside, soldiers in combat gear
-inside conference centre has big room prepared, like lecture hall, with rows of seats, tables; verse of koran above podium encouraging leaders to consult people
-top people not there yet; present are shi'ite and sunni clerics, kurds, tribal chiefs in arab robes and headdress, men in suits.
(CONTINUED)
More than 150 delegates milling around by 10:30
Delegate Zainab al-Suwaij, from American Islamic Congress. wore headscarf, said:
"We are here hopefully to put down the structure or agree on the skeleton of a government. We are here to represent Iraqi women, who have in the past played very little role in Iraqi politics."
Only a handful of women attending the meeting
Delegate Hussein Sadr, dean of Islamic Council in London, said:
"The people today after they were liberated from Saddam want security and stability. People want real participation. The people is the decision-maker. I am participating in this conference because those who are concerned with Iraqi issues must hear the voice of the people."
(CONTINUED)
We're not filing pool on Garner speech on TV.
About 200 delegates present.
The meeting began with a reading from the Koran shortly before 11 a.m. (0700 GMT).
Among those attending the discussions were representatives of the Iraqi National Congress as well as officials from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Chalabi himself was not seen.
Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki now counts about 250 delegates as people continued to turn up after start of meeting.
Garner told delegates:
"It is our responsibility to start the process of the birth of democracy in Iraq here today."
"Before we begin the reconstrcution successfully we have to have security. We are trying to get it across Iraq. It is very difficult but we will make it happen.
He announced there would be tomorrow a town hall meeting in baghdad to discuss security
Note our correspondent cannot telephone from inside the building so updates will be very limited in frequency and length until after the meeting.
(CONTINUED)
Garner said in a speech:
"We have a chance for your sons and daughters grandsons and grand daughters to be safe, to be free, and have the opportunity to live in peace and prosperity. Let us not waste this opportunity."
"Today on the birthday of Saddam Hussein, let us start the democratic process for the children of Iraq."
He appealed to people to get back to work.
Garner said as of this week we will start to buy wheat and prepare for the harvest of crops.
Former Iraqi exiles hugged and kissed. One asked another in disbelief "In Baghdad?". "Yes, in Baghdad," the other responded, smiling.
(CONTINUED)
The first open session broke for lunch after about two hours about 1 p.m. local. After lunch there will be a second session closed to the media. Then a third, open, session and a news conference, which was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. local.
While there were some Kurds present in the hall, U.S. officials said the two main Kurdish political parties, PUK and KDP, were not officially represented. They believed this was due to "logistical problems". No further details were available.
Despite comments from SCIRI officials in London that their movement is not represented at the talks, two delegates who said they were from SCIRI spoke to Reuters in the hall. Reuters also spoke to a SCIRI official in Najaf who said a delegation was in Baghdad. In all there were about 250-260 people in the hall.
After Garner spoke, British junior government minister Mike O'Brien spoke. His comments echoed Garner's.
After that, Iraqi delegates began to make speeches.
Speaker after speaker stressed the need for security and restoring the infrastructure. All insisted that Iraq can be ruled only by Iraqis. Many speakers thanked the US and UK for ousting Saddam.
No one from SCIRI, the INC or official representatives of other major political parties spoke in the first open session.
Among speakers were:
Sheikh Hussein Sadr, dean of the Islamic Council in London, told the assembly: "The Iraqi people owe a lot to the United States and the United Kingdom...for deposing the dictator."
"Iraq cannot be ruled except by Iraqis."
Saadoun Dulaimi, a returned exile politician, said: "The lack of security threatens our new-born democracy. Security must be restored for this experience to survive."
A tribal leader from central Iraq who was not clearly identified but wore traditional robes and an Arab headdress said: "Political activities should be suspended in the transitional period. We should concentrate on restoring the infrastructure...I warn you if we allow political activities for various parties now there will be a civil war."
(CONTINUED)
The second, closed, session of talks has started. A third session, open to the media pool, follows, then there will be a news conference. Presser was supposed to be at 6 pm local but given the talks started two hours late, it's anyone's guess when it may happen now. We are assuming press conference will be open to all media and therefore will not provide pool copy from it.
(CONTINUED)
There are clear differences among Iraqis on what role the United States should play, delegates say.
Some (mostly non-exiiles) want the Americans to have a direct role in the interim period to prepare for elections, because they don't trust each other.
Others (mainly exiles) say only Iraqis should rule Iraq and the US should have less influence in the interim period.
Mustapha Qazwin, who lives in the United States, a sheikh and a doctor, said: "We are having healthy discussions between people inside Iraq and who were outside Iraq. This is a democratic process and we are still debating the best route forward."
Suheil al-Suheil, a Baghdad lawyer, said: "There are differences over the role of the Americans. We here prefer the Americans to rule us in the interim period."
Asked why, he said: "We are not ready to handle this yet. Saddam's orphans are still alive."
A senior ORHA official said: "There will be a third conference held in northern iraq soon, as part of this process."
Delegates said it would likely be in Mosul in two to three weeks.
(CONTINUED)
The closed part of the meeting is about to end and they will go into open session again. It is not clear at this stage whether they will have a press conference afterwards but it seems more likely that they will not.
POOL REPORT. Baghdad April 27; Iraqi Political Dialogue, Central Iraq Meeting
From Alissa J. Rubin, Los Angeles Times, 00-873-762-200-844
Three hundred-plus Iraqi delegates filled the main auditorium in Saddam Hussein's convention center, which is now being used by the coalition forces' Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
The meeting, scheduled to end around six o'clock in the evening ran into overtime, lasting until past 8 o'clock as delegates argued, shouted and applauded.
The delegates represented both indigenous Iraqi groups including tribes and political organizations as well as a significant number of Iraqi exile organizations. Turbaned clerics in swirling white robes sat alongside exiles in dark pinstripe suits. Tribal sheiks in the traditional head dress known as ugal and the cloaks known as abbaya, sat next to men wearing informal western slacks and button down shirts.
In the sea of people there was only a handful of women.
The British and American officials sat along the side of the room.
At the front of the room, four officials moderated the proceedings: Muwaffaq al Ruba'i, an Iraqi exile; Zalmay Khalizad, President Bush's envoy to Iraq; Mike O'Brien, the British Foreign Office minister for the Middle East and Kanan Mahia, an Iraqi exile, who heads up the Iraqi Documentation project at Harvard University.
By the end of the day, the meeting had become highly emotional with people often jumping to their feet, speaking simultaneously and applauding. Sometimes the whole room seemed engulfed with noise. It was as if a cork had been pulled out of a champagne bottle and everyone was overflowing with words. .
Even in the last 20 minutes, people were still offering ideas. One man at the back asked that guns be confiscated from citizens. The proposal received only scattered applause.
At the end the group agreed using a show of hands and concensus-there was no mass protest-to convene a national meeting within four weeks to continue the discussion of the formation of a transitional government.
The group agreed to a list of principles. Among them that:
Coalition forces should accelerate their security enforcement activities The United Nations should lift sanctions.
That the International Community should forgive Iraq's debts.
That war reparations (primarily referring to those with Kuwait) should be forgiven. They emphasized the need to begin a process that will lead to a broad based national conference to be convened in a period of not more than four weeks from April 27th to form a transitional government.
END
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