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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. Please include a full reference to the source of the article. Today's Topics: 1. A washingtonpost.com article from: c.rowat@espero.org.uk (c.rowat@espero.org.uk) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 05:26:35 -0500 (EST) From: c.rowat@DELETETHISespero.org.uk To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk Subject: A washingtonpost.com article from: c.rowat@espero.org.uk You have been sent this message from c.rowat@espero.org.uk as a courtesy of= washingtonpost.com Personal Message: Dear list members, I met one of these councillors just over a week ago. Since, I have met a n= umber of university administrators, elected by their peers. Both of these meetings have encouraged me, giving me a strong hope that Ira= qis are now engaged in a mature dialogue about their country's future, and = will not accept plans that are not in their interests. An Iraqi Council With Clout By Ariana Eunjung Cha BAGHDAD, Feb. 17 -- President Bush made sure to set aside time to see the= m during his quickie Thanksgiving Day trip to Iraq. Secretary of State Coli= n L. Powell scheduled a meeting with them when he was last here. So did Com= merce Secretary Donald L. Evans. In a country in search of new leadership, the 37 members of the Baghdad Ci= ty Council are quickly becoming influential, if still behind-the-scenes, pl= ayers. They may not have the name recognition of a grand ayatollah or a wea= lthy exile, but they have one very important thing going for them: They are= the closest thing Iraq has to a democratically elected representative body= with real clout. Selected by their neighbors to serve as liaisons to the U.S.-led Coalition= Provisional Authority, they are doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers an= d other highly educated citizens. Few had been involved in politics before,= but now they speak out as much about national issues as local ones. With 41/2 months remaining before the scheduled transfer of Iraqi sovereig= nty from the U.S.-led occupation authority to an interim national governmen= t, the Baghdad council is a wild card. Occupation officials and Iraq's U.S.= -appointed Governing Council had agreed on an elaborate plan for creating a= transitional assembly through provincial caucuses, saying direct elections= were not possible before the June 30 handover date, but most council membe= rs have since withdrawn support for the plan. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, = Iraq's most influential religious leader, has said that nothing short of fu= ll elections could produce a government that was representative of the coun= try's population. The United Nations appears ready to broker a compromise, with elections he= ld sooner than occupation officials wanted but later than Sistani demanded.= The Baghdad City Council still has not said where it stands on this questi= on, but its members have been quietly surveying constituents and hope to is= sue a statement that they say will reflect the true views of the people. In the seven months since the council was formed, it has become a symbol o= f hope for democracy in a country that for the most part has known only aut= horitarian rule and that has been ravaged by violence since the fall Presid= ent Saddam Hussein. The council's greatest strength and greatest weakness, = say those who have worked with it, is its inexperience. Many members have o= nly vague notions about what a campaign or poll or caucus is, but that mean= s the type of democracy they practice is very academic, very pure. Taking Up Challenges "They aren't afraid to challenge anyone or anything, and that is a good si= gn," said Lt. Col. Joe Rice, an Army reservist and former mayor of Glendale= , Colo., population 5,000, who is advising the City Council here. The council has pushed the occupation authority to reconsider its vision f= or a foreign investment law. It publicly challenged the Governing Council b= ecause it was appointed, not elected. And it drafted a list of reconstructi= on projects that served as the foundation for a report presented at a confe= rence of donors last year in Madrid. When the Japanese government recently invited a delegation from Iraq to me= et with the prime minister, it went to the Baghdad City Council, not the Go= verning Council. "We decided when we initiated contact with the Iraqi peopl= e we wanted to meet with the City Council because they were somewhat democr= atically elected. That was important," said Matsu Bayashi, first secretary = at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad. The most telling sign that the City Council had arrived came in November,= when the occupation authority unveiled its plan for the formation of an in= terim Iraqi government that would take power this summer. Under the complic= ated system, councils in each of Iraq's 18 provinces, or governorates, woul= d have a key part in the initial stage of the process of picking an interim= national legislature. The legislature would choose a prime minister or pre= sident -- or two or three -- and appoint the rest of the government. Although the plan is now in flux, members of the Baghdad City Council are = poised to play a prominent role in the next government -- perhaps as part o= f an expanded Governing Council that might rule the country as it prepares = for elections, and most definitely, they say, as candidates in eventual ele= ctions. For most Iraqis, choosing a president or prime minister, even indirectly, = is an alien concept. Most have lived under only two leaders -- Saddam Husse= in and the American civil administrator, L. Paul Bremer, both of whom were = forced upon them. So when U.S. troops took to the streets of Baghdad this s= pring and summer with bullhorns and fliers and invited the people to meetin= gs where they could elect representatives, many came out of curiosity, if n= othing else. Like many members of the Baghdad council, Ali Haidary said he came to vote= , not to run. But someone nominated him for a spot on his neighborhood coun= cil and he won, and he felt it was his responsibility to serve his people. "When I came home that day, I told my family I became a member of the loca= l city hall. My family was amazed. What happened? they asked," recalled Hai= dary, 47, now City Council chairman. More important, they wondered: What do= es that mean? Haidary is a serious, meticulous man who studied mechanical engineering in= college and, like many other Iraqi men his age, spent time working for t= he government and time in the army. He now owns an air-conditioning repair = company in the middle-class area of Al Adl. In the weeks following his election to the Al Adl Neighborhood Council, Ha= idary was elected to represent Al Adl on the Mansoor District Council, whic= h in turn voted him onto the Baghdad City Council. In July, he was elected = vice chairman of the City Council. Since being chosen as chairman in Januar= y, he has been the top man in a political system that comprises 88 individu= al councils and more than 750 representatives. His fellow members of the Baghdad City Council range in age from twenties = to late sixties and include sheiks and religious leaders as well as citizen= s who say they consider themselves secular. Saeb Sideeq Gailani is director= general of Medical City, the largest hospital complex in the country; Adna= n Abdul Sahib Hassan, 53, is a former flight attendant for Iraqi Airways an= d was an officer in the old Iraqi army; Fatima Hassan Miqdadi, 41, is a tea= cher who spent almost all of her twenties in prison because she was suspect= ed of helping the Dawa party, a prominent Islamic political group that oppo= sed Hussein's Baathists. The council got off to a rocky start when it first met on July 7. Members = could barely agree on how to conduct the meetings, not to mention what issu= es they should address. In the beginning, the council members focused on issues in their neighborh= oods. Haidary, for instance, helped reopen a government shopping center tha= t provided more than 200 jobs. He also got funding to repair 20 of the 22 s= chools in his area that had not been scheduled for reconstruction. The $480= ,000 for the schools came from U.S. military commanders, humanitarian group= s and the Japanese Embassy. "I believe the biggest crime Saddam committed was neglecting education," H= aidary said. "The Iraqi student in the past was one of the most intellectua= l, the most clever. But because of Saddam, our students have now reached th= e lowest level." A Growing Visibility The council members' successes and their cooperation with the occupation a= uthority, have made them targets for insurgents. Haidary's Al Adl council = offices have been attacked several times, and one of his fellow council mem= bers was shot and killed. Two other members of the neighborhood councils in= Baghdad have died in ambushes. In December, a bomb went off in front of on= e City Council member's house. Hebrew language professor Ali Hussein Amiri'= s 20-year-old son had walked out the door and found a pen on the steps. Whe= n he picked it up, it blew his hand off. As the months have passed, the council has sought to expand its role. Memb= ers have challenged occupation officials on a number of issues, asking for = control of the city budget and demanding authority to inspect the progress = of reconstruction projects. "We shouldn't have to go to CPA for everything we do," Nashat Husseini arg= ued at one meeting, using the initials of the Coalition Provisional Authori= ty. "We should be able to do it ourselves." He said too many Iraqis -- othe= r than themselves -- are as afraid of being punished by the Americans for c= hallenging authority as they were of Hussein. In November and December, the United States, Japan and Turkey separately i= nvited the Baghdad City Council to visit. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Governing Council, which had all but ignored the Bagh= dad City Council some months ago, recently began sending representatives to= its weekly meetings. Senior occupation officials, including those in charg= e of electricity and reconstruction contracting, have also come to seek the= representatives' advice. The biggest question for the City Council remains what members think about= how a sovereign Iraq should be created. The committee assigned to look at = the issue remains divided over a caucus system or direct elections. Council member Miqdadi said that she supports Sistani's call for direct el= ections and that people should think of him not as a religious figure but a= s a scholar. "He studied international relations and he knows about politic= s. We believe very much that his thoughts are with the times," she said. Basim Salih Yaaqubi, 39, a financier who serves on the council, disagrees.= Direct elections, he says, are not practical at this time for many reasons= , including the fact that the political system is still developing and that= security is so poor that there is a danger polling places would be attacke= d. But both quickly said that if the council's survey shows the public's opin= ion differs from theirs, they will support the people. "In democracy, that = is how things should work," Yaaqubi said, as if quoting from a textbook. "Y= ou go with the majority." Would you like to send this article to a friend? 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