PowellTHE UNITED States plans to install the first stages of a civil administration to run post-war Iraq in the southern port of Umm Qasr within days, a U.S. official said yesterday.
Members of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) are scheduled to start operating in the port as early as Tuesday, the official said.
"What we are going to start trying to do, even before the fighting is over in Iraq, is to move to the areas in Iraq that are relatively peaceful, places like Umm Qasr, and to start moving ORHA into Iraq," the official, who asked that his name be withheld, told Reuters. ORHA has become the focus of international controversy. The U.S. faces criticism for assuming the leading role in immediate post-war Iraq instead of the United Nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has rebuffed the near unanimous demands from members of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to put the United Nations in the driving seat.
Retired U.S. General, Jay Garner, is set to make his media debut in Kuwait tomorrow as the man whom the United States has named to be Iraq's temporary post-war civilian administrator.
It is on the point of post-war Iraq that the United States and its closest ally Britain part company. Britain's differences with America over plans for post-war Iraq were highlighted yesterday as ministers promised that Iraqis would run their country as soon as possible and ruled out future military action against Syria and Iran.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was cheered by Labour MPs when he dismissed suggestions that post-war Iraq would be run by Jay Garner, the retired US general, and other American 'ministers' under the direct command of the Pentagon.
The Prime Minister said that General Garner's role would be advisory, that he would work with the United Nations and that the aim would be to hand over swiftly to an Iraqi interim authority, which itself would soon be replaced by a new Iraqi government and legislature.
"It's in everyone's interest to get to the fastest possible point where the Iraqi government is indeed Iraqi, not UN or coalition force-based," Mr. Blair said.
"I would discount some of the stories that come out about Americans running every single part of this. There is bound to be a situation of transition where the coalition forces are de facto in control. But our aim is to move as soon as possible to an Iraq interim authority that will be run by Iraqis," Mr. Blair said.
Garner's team will administer three regions, with retired General Buck Walters in the south, retired General Bruce Moore in the north and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine in the central region.
Aside from this trio of veteran U.S. officials, little is known about the make-up of the administrations for the three regions.
The official declined to say whether Iraqis or Iraqi-Americans would join the first ORHA group working for Walters at Umm Qasr.
ORHA's mission is to provide humanitarian assistance, work on reconstructing the country and install a civil administration.
"The goal is to try to restore Iraqi sovereignty to the Iraqi people as soon as possible," the official said. The State secretary said that U.N. will definitely have a role to play in post-war Iraq - but the precise nature of the role is yet to be decided. Mr Powell was speaking recently at NATO headquarters in Brussels, after a day of talks with European foreign ministers.
He said the U.S.-led coalition would work in partnership with other organisations but would reserve for itself the "leading role in determining the way forward".
However, the European ministers said they would be pressing Mr. Powell to agree to a central role for the U.N. Mr Powell said Washington hoped U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would appoint a co-ordinator to supervise "the flow of humanitarian aid coming from U.N. organisations".
BBC Brussels correspondent Chris Morris says if the U.N. is not put in control of Iraq, the EU will have to consider what financial contribution it is prepared to make. Correspondents say France, Germany and Russia are still bitterly opposed to anything that would legitimise the war. But there have been signs of a more conciliatory approach from all three Governments.
The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, told parliament in Berlin that his country hoped the war would end quickly with the fall of what he called the current Iraqi dictatorship.
However, he stressed that Germany remained opposed to the war, and said Iraqi resources must remain under the control of its people.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country did not want the United States to fail in its war in Iraq.
The British are eager to win over the Iraqi people and ministers fear that this could be hindered by suggestions that the Americans will take over Iraq for a long period. Meanwhile, the United Nations has drawn up a confidential plan to establish a post-Saddam government in Iraq. The 60-page plan was ordered by Louise Frechette, the Canadian deputy of Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, and was drawn up at the U.N.'s New York headquarters by a six-member pre-planning group. It envisages the U.N. stepping in about three months after a successful conquest of Iraq, and steering the country towards self-government, as in Afghanistan.
The plan resists British pressure to set up a full-scale U.N. administration. It also says that the U.N. should avoid taking direct control of Iraqi oil or becoming involved in vetting Iraqi officials for links to the President or staging elections under U.S. military occupation.
It proposes instead the creation of a U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, to be known as Unami, to help to establish a new government.
Information sources: Reuters New Agency and The Times.
