Iraqi Group Opposes US Plans

[sassa]

IRAQI GROUP OPPOSES US PLANS

Exiles support a UN-led transitional authority and an independent Iraqi

executive authority.

By Julie Flint in Beirut

Non-aligned Iraqi exiles opposed to American plans to occupy their country

are stepping up their efforts to gather support for a UN-supervised

interim administration that would pave the way for a new, Iraqi democracy

free of American control.

The exiles, known as the "Iraqi Group," first made their presence known

last month when they appealed to President Saddam Hussein to relinquish

power voluntarily in order to save Iraq from war and "a subsequent train

of disastrous developments". It was the first such appeal in more than 30

years of his rule in Iraq.

The exiles said Saddam had unleashed "a series of crises and catastrophes

that have afflicted Iraq and Arab interests as a whole". They called on

the United Nations, the Arab League and Arab governments to do all in

their power to bring about a non-violent change of regime.

The appeal was signed by 37 well-known exiles spanning Iraq's entire

political, religious and ethnic spectrum. The exiles included five former

cabinet ministers - best-known among them former foreign minister Adnan

Pachachi - as well as academics, technocrats and journalists. Within days,

their demand for Saddam's departure was echoed by one of the elder

statesmen of the Arab world, United Arab Emirates President Zayed ibn

Sultan an Nahayan - the first Arab leader to restore relations with Iraq

after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"Demanding that a leader step down is a completely new thing in Arab

politics," economist Mehdi Hafedh, a leading member of the Iraqi Group and

a former regional director of the UN Industrial Development Organisation,

told IWPR.

"It's difficult to believe that Saddam will accept exile, but I don't rule

it out. Dictators like him always insist on staying in power, but are

sometimes obliged to step down. Look at Milosevic," he said.

Hafedh said Saddam was showing clear signs of weakness - not least of all

in seeking a political rather than a military solution to the current

crisis.

"In the past, he has said: 'Let them come!'" Hafedh said. "But now he's

playing for the sympathy of the outside world. In his dealings with the UN

weapons inspectors, he's backing down very fast. Despite all his noise

about resistance, he's in a very desperate mood."

Hafedh said the Iraqi Group opposes America's plans to remove Saddam

because "while we don't want Saddam to continue in power, we don't want

our country to be destroyed". War could destroy what was left of an

economy already burdened by foreign debts totalling more than $90 billion.

Hafedh said he believed there might be a coup of some sort against

Saddam - although not before the start of a war. "All things are possible

now because Saddam is so weak," he said.

Since making public their appeal, Pachachi and his colleagues in the Iraqi

Group have been travelling widely - both within Europe and the Middle

East - to gather support for their proposed alternative to an

American-controlled Iraq.

The group wants a transitional administration that would work "in

cooperation with the UN" - not under the US. Pachachi has said he favours

a collective leadership to minimise the possibility of ethnic conflict or

argument. They call for an immediate lifting of sanctions against Iraq in

the post-Saddam period. They also seek the development of an oil policy to

help rebuild Iraq and - coordination with other producing countries - "to

achieve stability in international oil markets".

In the longer term, the group calls for elections to a constituent

assembly that would draw up a constitution, establish the rule of law,

eliminate political oppression and protect "the unity and sovereignty of

Iraqi territory".

After widespread dissemination of the group's appeal, and courtship of

Pachachi by the US administration, US-backed opposition leaders meeting in

Salaheddine in northern Iraq asked the 80-year-old Pachachi to join a

six-man leadership council that is expected to have an advisory function

after Saddam's removal. This council includes longstanding opposition

figures such as Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party and

Ayatollah Mohamad Bakr Al Hakim of the Supreme Council for Islamic

Revolution in Iraq.

Pacachi refused, saying linkage to a US military administration would be

both "damaging and unacceptable". He said Iraqis should have executive

powers in the post-Saddam period, not merely advisory ones.

Asked for the Iraqi Group's evaluation of the Salaheddine leadership,

Hafedh acknowledged that its members had contributed to the struggle

against the Iraqi regime. Their failing, he said, was that they were "part

of an external project. . . . They are not independent."

Julie Flint, a long-time correspondent from the Middle East and a former

IWPR trustee, is coordinating editor of the Iraqi Crisis Report.