Bremer Visits Iraq’s ‘Embryonic Democracy’

As they eyed L. Paul Bremer III munching bread and patting children’s heads along a busy sidewalk Sunday in this northern city, several Iraqis asked with amazement, “Is this our new American president?”

Their surprise was understandable. In a nation where the face of Saddam Hussein was long ubiquitous, few citizens ever saw their president in person. A crowd of about 100 drew near to Bremer, and a middle-aged man kissed him on both cheeks. Another said in English, “We love you.”

Bremer’s visit to Mosul was his first venture outside Baghdad since arriving in the capital almost a week ago as the new U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq. The trip marked an effort by Bremer and his Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to show that, for all the attention being paid to Baghdad’s woes, progress is being made in restoring normalcy to the country.

In Mosul, the U.S. Army has taken the lead in improving security and services, and has made progress.

“Here in Mosul, people are able to move around relatively easily,” Bremer told reporters who traveled with him. “The same is true in the south. We have difficulties with them moving around Baghdad. We’re dealing with that as fast as we can.”

Under guidance from Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Mosul has chosen a new interim mayor and city council, described as the nation’s first democratically selected government after the war. Bremer called the new structures a great example of the “embryonic democracy” that Baghdad could soon replicate.

Bremer met with Mosul’s mayor, the council, a police chief and a judge to illustrate that the organs of government have begun to stir with life. He visited soldiers of the 101st in the former northern palace of Hussein’s son Qusai to get an orientation from Petraeus and to highlight American control in the ethnically diverse region.

Army commanders say soldiers in Nineveh province, which includes Mosul, conduct about 200 patrols per day. The most recent violent incident they encountered was three days ago, when soldiers startled two looters. The thieves fired a gun and threw a grenade but failed to pull out the pin, said Maj. Hugh Cate, a spokesman for the 101st.

One was shot. Both were jailed.

While the province is relatively secure, groups of dissidents have protested repeatedly outside Mosul’s city hall. At least a dozen demonstrators were killed in the city in late April when Special Forces troops and Marines responded to shots being fired during a demonstration. Protesters said the shots were fired into the sky, but U.S. military officials said some were aimed at them.

As Bremer emerged Sunday from the meeting with city council members and interim Mayor Ghanim Basso, two groups of protesters were chanting outside. Several members of one group identified themselves as Arabs who have been forced out of their homes in 31 villages by peshmerga, Kurdish fighters allied with the United States.

“We want you to provide us peace, security,” Saleh Ahmad Fanash said through an interpreter. “If we go to our village, peshmerga forces will kill us. Our sheep have been captured by the peshmerga.”

The most vocal protesters were former soldiers from Hussein’s army, who have not been paid in three months. “We want democracy! Yes, yes, Iraq!” they chanted.

“The U.S. Army had promised these people many things, but they did nothing,” said Belal Daham, one of the ex-soldiers. “They just stole our oil.”

Mosul’s local government has started to respond to some public discontent, taking steps to ease one major problem: long lines for gasoline. There had been nine government-owned gas stations running in the city until Saturday, when the mayor opened 31 privately owned ones. The cost of a liter, or about a quart, of gas was controlled, at 20 Iraqi dinars, or about two cents, officials said. Fifty-five truckloads of gas are being brought in from Turkey daily.

Since the deadly April shootings, the protests in Mosul have been peaceful. On Sunday, demonstrators politely remained quiet as Bremer stepped out onto the city hall steps to address reporters, a reticence locals attributed to an inherent deference for government after 35 years under the Hussein regime.

“We have seen in the streets here today the voice of freedom speaking in these demonstrators, free to express their views in a way that has been denied for 30 years,” Bremer said. “So for me and the other coalition members who have been here, this has been a very important education in what the future of Iraq can look like.”

British ambassador John Sawars, London’s senior official in the reconstruction agency, agreed that the situation in Mosul should serve as a model for other parts of Iraq, particularly the capital.

“Security in Mosul is better than it is in Baghdad,” Sawars said. “And we have to start with the first issue -- the first issue is security in the capital -- and move on from there. Mosul is fortunate in that it suffered less damage in the fighting and its leaders have come together more rapidly. We now need to replicate some of those successes here down in the capital.”

Reconstruction agency officials insisted Sunday that conditions in Baghdad are improving, if slowly. A survey of the city’s 43 police stations by the Coalition Joint Task Force found that 86% of the city’s 8,200-member police force is back at work.

Nevertheless, Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, warned that a “major crisis” looms without quick action to meet Iraqis’ urgent humanitarian needs and restore security.

In the south, U.S. officials say they have had an easier time maintaining peace and getting water and power running, even though there is strong public support for Shiite Muslim clerics who want American authorities to leave.

“We understand that the dynamics at work in Baghdad are dramatically different from how we operate,” said Buck Walters, the regional administrator for south-central Iraq.

While acknowledging the difficulties in the capital, Bremer denied that humanitarian aid and security problems there will postpone the formation of an Iraqi government. He said that he told Iraqi leaders on Friday that he intends to concentrate on that process without delay.

“We told them that our coalition authority is intent on moving forward as quickly as we can to get Iraq on the path to representative government,” he said. “I don’t accept the hypothesis that there’s been any delay.”

One thing that would speed Iraq’s transition, Bremer said, is to have the international community lift long-standing sanctions on Iraq. That would allow the country to sell oil and import goods. The United Nations may consider a proposal to lift the sanctions as soon as this week.

“I think the lifting of sanctions is an absolutely essential step now for us to help the Iraqi people recover the money that belongs to them that is in trust of the U.N. so that we can get that money to work for the Iraqi people,” Bremer said.

“We can see driving around that there is progress being made in Iraq, people going about their business,” he said. “You saw it today, particularly in the markets of Mosul. There’s a lot of money being held that the Iraqis need.”