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News, 09-16/04/03 (12) FALL OF TIKRIT * Tikrit blitzed to forestall last stand * Forces Meet No Resistance in Tikrit, Franks Says * The final fortress crumbles * Bombarded Tikrit falls to marines THE WRECK OF THE WORLD * The Atlantic alliance lies in the rubble * War protests flare as Baghdad falls * Iraqi diplomats watch TV and wait for word * Inspections required to end sanctions, UN says * Anti-war axis pushes rebuilding role for UN * There is one choice, and it is the UN * Activists on march * De Villepin: no new battle fronts * Yemen gives asylum to Iraqi envoy to Arab League * Iraqi Embassy Ceases to Function in Pakistan * U.S. Launches Talks with Iraqis on Postwar Rule * War crimes case planned against U.S FALL OF TIKRIT http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,933510,00.html * TIKRIT BLITZED TO FORESTALL LAST STAND by Stuart Millar and Rory McCarthy in Camp as-Sayliya, Qatar The Guardian, 10th April US and British jets bombed sites around Tikrit yesterday as coalition commanders stepped up preparations for a final assault on Saddam Hussein's hometown to prevent him using it as the scene for a desperate last stand. Large numbers of Republican Guard forces dug in around Tikrit were being "actively engaged" by air strikes and special forces, coalition commanders said, amid clear signs that the town was being softened up in advance of a ground offensive, in the same way as the Iraqi capital and towns further south. "We continue to strike Tikrit and other cities in the north with air power, just as we did in Baghdad, in the south in Basra, Nassiriya, Najaf and other cities," said Captain Frank Thorp, an American spokesman at central command in Qatar. "It's a little too early to assess the resistance, as at this time operations are mostly from the air in our effort to shape the battlefield." Brigadier-General Vince Brooks, the US deputy director of operations, said Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam were moving into Tikrit, the spiritual capital of his regime about 100 miles north of Baghdad, in an attempt to bolster its defences. The reinforcements were coming from the north and the south of the town. "We are focused on Tikrit to prevent the regime using it as a place to restore command and control, or to hide," Gen Brooks told reporters during his daily press briefing in Qatar. He showed photographs of an air strike on a large villa complex in Tikrit. One showed the villa had been flattened. The operation to seal off the town took on added urgency yesterday as it became clear that Saddam had probably survived the massive air strike on a restaurant in Baghdad on Monday. Other key leadership figures, such as the information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, have dropped out of sight in the past 48 hours, increasing speculation that they have fled to Tikrit. The town, on the banks of the Tigris, is the biggest remaining objective for coalition forces. Yesterday, as Baghdad residents took to the streets to celebrate the fall of the regime, officials in Washington were cautioning that it would be premature to declare victory before Tikrit and other areas north of the capital were under coalition control. The road north from Baghdad was sealed off at the weekend by American special forces who have set up checkpoints. The main assault on the town will not happen until the arrival of the 30,000-strong US 4th Infantry Division - the most technologically advanced ground force in the world - which is about to race north through the desert from Kuwait, bypassing Baghdad to encircle Tikrit. Military sources in Qatar said yesterday that the 4th, currently unloading its Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles from 35 container ships in Kuwait, would be mov ing on Tikrit within five days. It will encounter the last intact Republican Guard units, the remnants of the Adnan and Nida divisions, as well as Special Republican Guard - the units most loyal to Saddam and drawn mainly from Tikrit and the surrounding area. Tikrit is also the location of a major air base, the Iraqi air force academy, and four large presidential compounds, including Saddam's ostentatious and highly symbolic Tharthar palace. There are also signs that the US is preparing to mount an armoured offensive from the north. Heavy armour reinforcements are reported to have been landing over the past 48 hours at the 173rd Airborne's Hariri airbase in the Kurdish region, the first time Abrams M1A2 tanks have been landed by air in a combat zone. http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2555571 * FORCES MEET NO RESISTANCE IN TIKRIT, FRANKS SAYS Reuters, 13th April AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar: General Tommy Franks, the U.S. officer in charge of the war in Iraq, said on Sunday American forces were meeting no resistance in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, but the fighting was not over yet. "I wouldn't say it's over but I will say we have American forces in Tikrit right now. When last I checked this force was moving on Tikrit and there was not any resistance," Franks told CNN in an interview monitored at war headquarters in Qatar. "I think we would be premature to say well, gosh, it's all done, it's all finished," he said. Tikrit, a city 110 miles north of Baghdad, is the last major Iraqi center not yet controlled by U.S. forces. Saddam's concentration of power among his closest family, and distrust of most people outside his Albu Nasir tribe, meant Tikritis formed the backbone of his most loyal military forces. Despite apparent progress in Tikrit, Franks said military action would not end until pockets of Iraqi resistance were under control. "We know that there are pockets of, I've heard them referred to as everything from paramilitary to death squad to Fedayeen Saddam, we know that there are pockets of that," Franks told CNN in an interview monitored at war headquarters in Qatar. "We also know that there are pockets of foreigners in Iraq who had decided to fight to their last breath," he said. "And until we have a sense that we have all of that under control then we will probably not characterize the initial military phase as having been completed and the regime totally gone." "We know that the ... Iraqi army has been destroyed, we know that there is no regime command and control in existence right now," he said. Earlier on Sunday, CNN correspondent Brent Sadler and his crew escaped serious injury when their vehicles came under fire in Tikrit. His team shot footage showing that a military base in the northern outskirts was abandoned. In a separate interview with ABC television, Franks said there was no remaining Iraqi army under command, nor navy or airforce. "We feel very good about that. But the use of the term where we say the regime is totally gone I think we'll be thoughtful before we use that," he said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,936274,00.html * THE FINAL FORTRESS CRUMBLES by Luke Harding near Tikrit The Guardian, 14th April >From a field just outside the town, the final battle for the last stronghold of Saddam Hussein's empire could be seen unfolding. The attack from the sky was terrifying and relentless. Every few minutes fresh clouds of black smoke puffed above the western bank of the Tigris river, as the bombs fell. American Cobra helicopter gunships and F-18s were eating away at the last remnants of Iraq's once mighty army. By late yesterday afternoon, Saddam's regime consisted of one provincial city - much of it already destroyed - and a handful of mud villages set amid the rolling brown desert. It was not perhaps the ending he had envisaged. As American troops last night entered Saddam's hometown, no one was suggesting that the war in Iraq was over. But it was clear as US warplanes pounded Tikrit that we were now deep into the final act. US officials at central command in Qatar said 250 US armoured vehicles backed by Cobra attack helicopters and F-18 fighter jets had pushed into the city from the south, but were encountering some resistance. US troops had destroyed five Iraqi tanks on their way into Tikrit, and killed at least 15 Iraqi soldiers. The Iraqi army had retreated down the road from Kirkuk to Tikrit three days ago. Nearby, just before an escarpment of low hills, was evidence of their flight. A truck carrying an 8 metre fin-tailed missile lay toppled on its side. The missile was still there but the driver had long fled; inside his shattered cab we found vehicle hire documents covered in blood. Further on towards Tikrit, giant boxes of ammunition lay abandoned in the desert. Bedouin tribesmen stood nearby, looking after their sheep, but there was no sign of the Republican Guard. Far from staging a last stand, most of the Iraqi army supposed to defend Tikrit appeared to have already melted away. "The Iraqi troops have abandoned all their positions and bunkers inside Tikrit," Hassan Mahmud, 25, said after driving out of the city. "They have slipped into civilian clothes. Some of the Ba'ath party members have fled towards the marshes." Who was in control of Tikrit now? "I don't know," he replied. Tikrit's governor had offered to surrender, he added. The only people now prepared to die for Saddam, it seemed, were not Iraqis but Syrians. Witnesses said the fighters were preparing to ambush American troops as they penetrated the city centre. Much of Tikrit was already rubble, and the main military targets flattened, Mr Mahmud said. "Most people inside Tikrit are happy that Saddam has gone," said his friend, Siman Ali. "Those who aren't have left." A mile down the road, just beyond a mural of Saddam and a sign that reads: "Welcome to Tikrit", there was turmoil. A group of Arab youths had taken control of the main bridge. When a Toyota pick-up full of Kurdish peshmerga turned up, the Arabs opened fire. They also shot at several other cars that tried to pass. After hearing that Tikrit had fallen, Khalid Salman decided yesterday to visit the place where Saddam was born. The nearby village of Ouja, once a collection of mud huts, has long been a popular tourist destination for ordinary Iraqis. Mr Salman had got into a car with two friends and set off down the Tikrit road, seemingly oblivious to the aircraft above. "I spent five minutes in Tikrit and then I left," a shaken Mr Salman said, after performing a swift u-turn. "It's mayhem in there. There are civilians with Kalashnikovs patrolling the streets. Some people are looting the city. "The Iraqi army has disappeared. The main bridge has been half blown-up. We didn't see any American troops. It hasn't fallen yet." When Saddam was born nearly 66 years ago, Tikrit was little more than a shabby smuggling outpost on the banks of the Tigris. Over the past 30 years he lavished money on it, and elevated Tikritis to the highest offices of state. Yesterday, it seemed, most Tikritis were preparing to betray him. A former Ba'ath party Kurd sent in to negotiate with Tikrit's Sunni Muslim clan leaders emerged to reveal that 25 out of 28 of them wanted to surrender to coalition forces. Only three reportedly refused, including the head of Saddam's own clan. Many of the Arab villagers who live just outside Tikrit shared that hostility yesterday. Najim Abdullah Ahmed, from Terashad, 20 miles away, said: "A lot of people from here have been taken away and tortured. We are very happy that Saddam is gone. We will cooperate with the British and the Americans." Mr Salman, meanwhile, said he would go back and tour Saddam's birthplace another time. "The Iraqi people don't like Saddam," he said. "For the past 35 years I have been too poor to afford to eat cheese. "We have been hungry, and we haven't had any money." http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/14/1050172545486.html * BOMBARDED TIKRIT FALLS TO MARINES by By Ed O'Loughlin, Herald Correspondent in Tikrit and agencies Sydney Morning Herald, 15th April United States marines seized the centre of Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit on Monday after battling loyalists. Al-Jazeera broadcast live pictures of marines walking through Tikrit and US tanks taking up positions in a central square. The march to the square came after US forces bombarded the city with aircraft and artillery amid reports that local tribal leaders were attempting to negotiate a peaceful surrender. Al Jazeera's correspondent in the city, Youssef al-Sharif, said: "Tikrit is totally under US control and they are talking with tribes to control the city and take out all pockets of resistance." The satellite channel interviewed armed men who said that there were no more Iraqi forces left in the city, supposedly the last stronghold of Saddam's regime. They said they wanted only to prevent the entry of northern Kurdish forces, blamed for the looting of Kirkuk and Mosul. "We are carrying arms to defend our city from the Kurds. We do not want them in our city. We have no problems with the Americans. We want peace but we will not allow the Kurds to come in," one unidentified man said. "We have 15 tribes here and the leaders of the tribes are negotiating with the Americans. We don't want to fight the Americans. The Iraqi military left the city five days ago." Located 180 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, Tikrit is in the heartland of Iraq's Sunni minority, which has dominated the country since its birth despite making up only 20 per cent of the population. [.....] THE WRECK OF THE WORLD http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c =StoryFT&cid=1048313630368&p=1012571727162 * THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE LIES IN THE RUBBLE by Charles Kupchan Financial Times, 10th April Now that the war in Iraq appears to be close to its end, Americans and Europeans will inevitably begin asking how to repair the transatlantic bond. They need not bother. The diplomatic divide that has opened between the US and continental Europe is bringing the Atlantic alliance to a definitive end. Even before the outbreak of war, the anguished stand-off at the United Nations Security Council made it amply evident that European and American security are no longer indivisible. By steadfastly opposing the US, France, Germany and Russia revealed that they are ready for a Europe without its American pacifier. Having already made clear that shifting priorities necessitate a diminished US presence in Europe, Washington is sure to oblige, casting aside the western alliance in spirit, if not also in fact. The central question facing US and European policy makers is thus not how to repair the transatlantic relationship but whether the end of alliance will take the form of an amicable separation or a nasty divorce. The former is far preferable in that it keeps open the possibility of revived co-operation down the road, but it will take a great deal of hard work by Americans and Europeans alike. For its part, George W. Bush's administration will have to realise that the guiding principles of its foreign policy have put Washington on a collision course with Europe. Those principles must now change if there is to be any hope of post-war rapprochement across the Atlantic. In particular, the administration must redress three miscalculations about the use of US power. First, Washington has operated under the assumption that the more powerful the US is, and the more uncompromising its leadership, the more readily the rest of the world will get in line. But the opposite has transpired. Mr Bush's swagger may appear determined at home, but in Europe and the rest of the world it smacks of arrogance. Far from evoking deference, the US policy of pre-emption and pre-eminence is inviting European resentment and resistance. The second misconception is that a country as strong as the US does not need international institutions; they only constrain America's room for manoeuvre. Mr Bush is right that institutions contain US power, but that is precisely why they are so integral to international stability. By obliging Washington to adhere to common rules, they increase confidence in the purpose and predictability of US power. When Washington walks away from international institutions, the rest of the world runs for cover. Third, Mr Bush has vastly overestimated the autonomy that comes with military supremacy. The administration has been dismissive of allies because it feels it does not need them. Washington should look again. The war on terrorism requires extensive international co operation. Afghanistan is being held together by a broad multinational coalition. Although France, Germany and Russia could not stop the war against Iraq, they ultimately denied Washington the legitimacy of UN backing, making the war in Iraq an especially risky gamble. These strategic misconceptions are continuing to tear down what little remains of the Atlantic community. Before it is too late, Washington must rediscover the principles of restraint, multilateralism and alliance. Otherwise, estranged allies will become outright adversaries, and Europe will have no reason even to contemplate working on its end of a new bargain. For its part, Europe must redouble efforts to build a union capable of acting collectively on the international stage. The European Union is currently in a no-man's-land. It is too strong to be Washington's lackey, but too weak and divided to be either an effective partner or a formidable counterweight. Although debate over Iraq has unquestionably weakened European unity, the current crisis does have the potential to be a turning point. Preserving the Atlantic link has been one of the key motivations inducing Britain, Spain and most central European countries to side with the Bush administration. But now that the Atlantic alliance is expiring, an Atlanticist Europe is no longer an option. France and Germany have realised as much - one of the main reasons they are discussing with Belgium deeper defence co-operation. The Poles have yet to give up hope of a strong Nato, but they can ignore reality for only so long; Warsaw and other like-minded capitals will soon realise that they have no choice but to settle for a strong EU. The sooner that current and prospective EU members face up to the fact that the US is in the midst of decamping from Europe - for good - the sooner they will begin throwing their weight behind a more effective and collective union. The Atlantic alliance now lies in the rubble of Baghdad. Perhaps that sad truth will awaken US leaders to their strategic mis-steps, and at the same time impress on Europe's leaders the urgent need for a deeper union. If so, the seeds of a more mature and balanced Atlantic order may also lie in Baghdad's ruins. The writer is a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of "The End of the American Era" http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/11/1049567844879.html * WAR PROTESTS FLARE AS BAGHDAD FALLS Sydney Morning Herald, 11th April Protests against the US-led war in Iraq flared worldwide today, a day after Saddam Hussein's regime crumbled as US troops rolled into Baghdad to scenes of jubilation by Iraqi civilians. In Spain, tens of thousands of people, mainly students, took to the streets to reinforce a nationwide trade union strike in protest at the war. In the Mediterranean city of Barcelona alone, at least 30,000 people crowded into the streets, chanting "Not a soldier, not a euro, not a bullet for this war." The streets of Madrid were also jammed, with demonstrators waving banners that read "Against the imperialist war". The Prado museum in the capital closed for two hours, with a reproduction of "Guernica," Picasso's famed anti-war painting, placed at its doors. In Greece, nearly 600 journalists stopped work for two hours and marched to the US embassy to protest the war and the casualties it has caused among their colleagues in the media. "Americans, murderers of peoples", "Americans, murderers of reporters," chanted the demonstrators. Eleven journalists and a Kurdish translator working for the BBC have been killed since the US-led war began on March 20, and another two are missing. In Athens, organisers have barred Britain from participating at a book fair where it was due to be the honoured country, because of its participation in the "illegal US invasion" of Iraq. Instead, the fair, a popular annual event to be held on May 9-25, would be dedicated to anti-war books, the Athens Publishers' and Booksellers' Association said. In Paris, about 100 demonstrators snuck into the building housing the American Express offices and hung an anti-war banner on the first floor, organisers said. In Germany, a McDonald's party bus and an advertisement for the food chain on a motorway were set alight in apparent anti-war protests. In Indonesia, some 150 protesters gathered outside the compound of the US firm Caltex on Sumatra island, demanding the firm's US employees condemn the war within 24 hours or face expulsion from the country. In Britain, organisers vowed to go ahead with a weekend anti-war protest in London. "We are organising meeting in many parts of the country which are bigger than those which took place before the war started," said Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop the War Coalition. http://www.iht.com/articles/92888.html * IRAQI DIPLOMATS WATCH TV AND WAIT FOR WORD International Herald Tribune, 11th April BERLIN: As Saddam Hussein's government collapsed, Iraqi diplomats were jumping ship, burning documents or, at the very least, were left stranded in their embassies without orders, unsure of who their new boss would be. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Iraqi diplomats were in limbo Thursday. "I haven't had contact with Baghdad for two or three weeks," Muaead Hussain, the Iraqi chargé d'affaires in Berlin, said through the locked iron gate of his embassy Thursday. He insisted he still represented Saddam's government. But asked whether he might switch allegiance, he said: "Why not? I am serving my country." The scene was peaceful outside the three-story villa on a tree-lined suburban street - a contrast with last August when the embassy was stormed by a group of Iraqis who took hostages, including Hussain, for hours demanding Saddam's ouster. Six people are on trial in Berlin over the siege. But Hussain said he was not worried about security. The police increased their presence outside the embassy after regime opponents broke into an Iraqi diplomatic office in London on Wednesday, leading to 24 arrests. Security was visibly tighter Thursday around the Iraqi Embassy in Cairo, with a large police truck parked nearby. In Stockholm, about 20 Iraqi Kurds gathered outside their country's embassy late Wednesday and urged the three remaining diplomats via bullhorns to seek political asylum in Sweden. "It is up to Iraq and the incoming authorities to decide what to do about sending new representatives," said Patrick Herman, a Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman, who added that he expected those decisions within days. In Vienna, the Iraqi Embassy said that its staff was calm but unsure about who was in charge back home. "We do not have any information," an official at the Iraqi Embassy in Nairobi said. "We are just seeing the television." Many Iraqi embassy staffs were reduced after European governments, under U.S. pressure, expelled Baghdad's diplomats in recent weeks. In New York, Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Douri conceded defeat. "I watch the television just like you," he said Wednesday outside his New York City residence - before reportedly fleeing to Paris. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/102/nation/Inspections_required_to_end_san ctions_UN_says%2B.shtml * INSPECTIONS REQUIRED TO END SANCTIONS, UN SAYS by Elizabeth Neuffer Boston Globe, 12th April UNITED NATIONS - Crippling sanctions on war-torn Iraq cannot be lifted yet because United Nations resolutions require that weapons inspectors first verify that Iraq is free of banned deadly weapons, Security Council diplomats said yesterday. The UN sanctions on Iraq, mandated by a series of resolutions passed since the 1991 Gulf War, restrict both the flow of goods into the country as well as the sale of Iraqi oil, a combination that could stall efforts to rebuild the country. The embargo was intended to punish Saddam Hussein's regime, but it legally applies to anyone now in charge of Iraq, UN diplomats say. That means that for goods to flow quickly to Iraq, the United States and Britain must ask the divided Security Council either to void the sanctions or consider having UN weapons inspectors return, diplomats say. Security Council diplomats are to take up the issue next week when they meet with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix. In an interview yesterday, Blix said that he will discuss the ''state of readiness'' of his UN weapons team with the 15-member council and that it is up to the diplomats to decide whether to return his inspectors to Iraq. ''There are many [council members] interested in a role for the UN,'' the Swedish diplomat added. Last week, Blix told reporters: ''On short notice we would be operational again.'' France, Germany, and Russia, which wanted UN weapons inspections to continue rather than wage war, are among those likely to welcome the return of the UN's Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC. ''Germany welcomes the opportunity to discuss with Hans Blix what could be UNMOVIC's future role in reaching the Security Council's goal of having an Iraq free of'' weapons of mass destruction, said Dirk Rotenberg, a spokesman for the German UN Mission. Germany chairs the committee that monitors those goods that can flow to Iraq despite UN sanctions, under the UN's oil-for-food program. President Bush pledged Tuesday that the United Nations will have a ''vital role'' in a postwar Iraq, although the details of US intentions remain vague. European nations have insisted that the UN play a central role. In the first sign of US-UN cooperation, the US Department of State invited Rafeeuddin Ahmed, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special adviser on Iraq, to Washington for a ''series of briefings on Iraq.'' The first meeting is set for Monday. Finding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is a key goal for the Bush administration, which made its case for war on the basis of its allegation that Iraq still harbors illegal arms. The administration accused Iraq of having mobile biological and chemical laboratories as well as stocks of anthrax and VX, a nerve agent, among other banned weapons. Three weeks into the coalition-led war, no ''smoking gun'' has emerged proving Iraq has such weapons. Secretary of State Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he was not surprised that biological or chemical weapons had not been discovered - and suggested they were well hidden. ''It's a big country,'' he told reporters. ''We're going to find the people'' who can help lead allied forces to them, Rumsfeld said. If UN weapons inspectors return and certify that Iraq does have weapons of mass destruction, that would undermine critics of the war, but the State Department and the Pentagon are divided over whether to give the UN equal authority to do so. Increasingly, however, it looks as if the decision on the inspectors may play out in the Security Council when it debates lifting the UN sanctions. Some council members, skeptical of the administration's assertions that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, may want to insist that weapons inspectors return. ''They may not want to let the US and Britain off the hook,'' suggested one council diplomat. Others members, reflecting views shared by some officials in the State Department, contend that Blix, who has teams of specialists already knowledgeable about Iraq's weapons stocks, is better placed to find any banned arms. Yesterday, Blix and other UN weapons inspectors lamented the possible loss of key documents to looting. Blix received an honorary doctorate from the New England School of Law yesterday, but in his half-hour speech, he steered mostly clear of the war in Iraq. At the beginning, he said, ''I, like others, am relieved it has been short.'' He then sounded a note of skepticism: ''I am very curious to see if the Allies in Iraq will find any weapons of mass destruction.'' He closed the evening by saying, ''Let's all hope for a speedy return to peace.'' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/12/wsum12.xml&s Sheet=/portal/2003/04/12/ixportaltop.html * ANTI-WAR AXIS PUSHES REBUILDING ROLE FOR UN by Ben Aris in St Petersburg and Robin Gedye Daily Telegraph, 12th April France, Germany and Russia yesterday signalled their determination to pursue their anti-war axis with a two-day summit devoted to promoting the United Nations as the main architect of Iraq's reconstruction. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said after an initial meeting with Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, and Jacques Chirac, the French president, in St Petersburg, that he welcomed the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime but did not believe the ends justified the means. "It is good that the Saddam Hussein regime has fallen. The fall of a tyrannical regime is a positive thing. We said for a long time that he had to be brought down. We did not defend him, but said it should not be done by force. "Obviously the toppling of a tyrannical regime was a plus. But the human losses, the humanitarian catastrophe, the destruction are all negatives." Mr Putin criticised the US-led coalition for failing to uncover any of the weapons of mass destruction Washington accused Iraq of harbouring. "Had I been in their place, I would wish I had found something. It is strange that nothing has been found yet," he said. Until Iraq's alleged weapons were found, the coalition's objective "has not been achieved", he said. "Even in its dying throes, the regime did not use weapons of mass destruction. We still don't know that it had any." Mr Putin stressed that there were risks of "endangering the balance of law" and that "only the people are entitled to determine" their regime. An attempt to turn the two-day summit into a full-blown challenge to Anglo-American plans for Iraq was defeated by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's decision to decline an invitation to join the leadership troika. "He realised that his trip here would be interpreted as an anti-American gesture," said Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policies. Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, sought to dampen anxieties over the meeting even before it began. "I'm strongly against the theory that this is an axis. The talk of these axes suggests that there are strategic alternatives to the European Union or to transatlantic relations. This lacks any basis." Displaying fury at what he sees as Washington's continuing unilateralist approach to Iraq, Mr Putin said: "We stand for the fastest return of this issue to the framework of the United Nations. Russia and Germany are in favour of a political solution. There are no prospects for a military solution." Russian, French and German insistence on the UN taking over Iraq's reconstruction appears in danger of enlarging the chasm with Washington. US secretary of state Colin Powell has told the Los Angeles Times that America has no intention of relinquishing control over Iraq. The trio's concerns will have been reinforced on hearing that the Pentagon envisions parallel ministries led by Americans and Iraqis running Iraq until an interim government can be established. The responsibility for overseeing public services, such as health care and electricity, would gradually shift from the US-led ministries to the Iraqi ones, deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. In an another move demonstrating that Washington is proceeding apace with its own post war arrangements, President Bush invited Poland, a staunch ally, to join America, Britain and Australia in helping to organise a "rolling dialogue" in Iraq. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,935824,00.html * THERE IS ONE CHOICE, AND IT IS THE UN by Barbara Stocking The Observer, 13th April Statues of Saddam topple and the coalition forces breathe sighs of relief. Prime Minister Tony Blair dismisses questions about whether Iraq should be run by coalition forces or the United Nations as a 'false choice'. The choice is not false. It is the key to winning the peace. George W. Bush said in Belfast last week that he would not 'impose' a new regime in Iraq. It is hard to see how any authority installed by a US-led administration - military or even nominally civilian - could be seen by the region as anything other than a victorious power imposing its will on a defeated enemy. Blair's 'false choice' is between Jay Garner, a retired US general linked to the American arms industry and imposed by the White House, and an administration led by the UN, with international backing and the experience of history. It is between the Pentagon's Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and a UN authority, with full Security Council backing. The UN is the only organisation with the international legitimacy to help Iraqis to build their own representative authority. It is the only body with the experience to nurture a representative and accountable Iraqi regime and to rebuild a society destroyed not just by war but by years of sanctions. The Arab world - governments and people alike - does not accept Bush's claim that the conflict was a 'liberation' designed to 'advance human rights and dignity' and show 'respect for the Iraqi people'. 'There's nothing to rejoice when Saddam is removed because the US is going to install a puppet government in Baghdad to serve its interests,' said Suleiman Ahmed, a teacher in Oman. Meanwhile, the Saudi daily Al Jazirah warned in an editorial: 'The talk about an American administration to run Iraq after the war... would certainly mean an occupation, even if it included a number of Iraqi elements... bypassing the people of Iraq would only complicate the situation in an already explosive country.' The role of the UK and the US is not over. There is growing chaos in Iraq's cities. Humanitarian agencies have had to suspend their activities or postpone any hope of entering the country to deliver desperately needed aid. Emergency water tanks delivered to Basra by Unicef have been looted. Trucks shipping in water are being stripped of parts, including headlights and windscreen wipers, whenever they stop. A question mark hangs over a planned Oxfam assessment mission to southern Iraq this weekend. The coalition forces are obliged under the Geneva Conventions to maintain law and order and ensure that humanitarian assistance gets through to those who need it. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has already reminded the coalition of these obligations. If order is not restored, the looting will tip a fragile situation into a violent and chaotic one that could lead to people fleeing their homes. The refugee flows we have not yet had to face may yet become a reality. Civilians, already innocent victims of the war, could become the principal casualties of a bloody aftermath. Even if the refugee flows do not emerge, the looting has damaged food stores, warehouses, schools and public buildings that will be vital to the reconstruction of Iraq. It pits Iraqi against Iraqi and creates resentments that will simmer for years in a country already split into a mosaic of tribal, ethnic and religious groups. All the more important, then - as well as restoring law and order - to start listening to people in the region and reassure the people of Iraq that they will play a key role in defining their future. It is hard to assess the feelings of the Iraqi people right now. There are big questions raised about the legitimacy of many Iraqi exile groups - witness the current row over Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Another voice is Adnan Pachachi, an 80-year-old former Iraqi Foreign Minister and long time opponent of Saddam Hussein's regime, who is tipped by some as a potential caretaker leader. Pachachi said last week: 'We may have no choice but to accept a short period of military administration to fill the void that will be created by the disintegration of the regime. But I must make it clear that Iraqi patriots do not favour any form of rule by the coalition.' It is this void that threatens the peace and prospects for reconstruction. Still dazed and frustrated by the speed and violence of the campaign, neighbouring states have not yet offered to step in. There are still divisions in the Arab League that hampered the group's efforts to oppose the war. Yet the first signs of a willingness to move beyond opposition to a war now in its final stages are emerging. Jordan has called on the Arab League to develop an 'active Arab role' in the administration of Iraq and there is a possibility that Gulf states may participate in a peacekeeping force. What unites the majority of Arab states, however, is the importance of a UN role in this. Saudi's King Fahd has called for a dynamic UN involvement. In New York, the 22-member Arab group in the United Nations is calling for the organisation to assert itself in Iraq. The task will not be easy. Some Iraqis blame the UN for allowing 12 years of sanctions to bring their country to its knees. But a US-led solution is not the answer. It is time for the international community to heed Annan's call for the United Nations to 'rediscover its sense of purpose'. Blair's 'false' question needs a decisive answer. Give the UN a clear leadership mandate to establish an Iraqi transitional authority and support national reconciliation. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=49067&Sn=WORL * ACTIVISTS ON MARCH Gulf Daily News (The Voice of Bahrain), 13th April Thousands of peace campaigners poured on to the streets of Europe and elsewhere yesterday switching their focus from preventing war on Iraq to protesting against the continuing US and British military presence. Although US and British officials say the military operation is drawing to an end after the fall of President Saddam Hussein's government, activists said their concerns were as grave as ever. "It is good Saddam has gone but we cannot forget this war is illegal and without the sanction of the United Nations. It is setting a very dangerous precedent of pre-emption," Pakistani politician and former international cricketer Imran Khan said as he joined a mass rally in London's Hyde Park. "No country should have the right to be judge, jury and executioner. That is the reason the UN was set up - to protect the weak from the strong. But this war sets a precedent where might is right and undermines the UN." Organisers estimated 100,000 people marched through the city centre, waving banners saying "No Occupation of Iraq" and chanting "Bush, Blair, CIA, how many kids have you killed today?". Police put the numbers at closer to 20,000. In the Italian capital Rome, a march originally organised to call for an end to the fighting changed its slogan to "No to an infinite and global war". "This war is far from over and anyway it will have terrible effects on the Middle East and maybe on the whole world," university professor Umberto Allegretti who joined the protest. TV footage showed a giant rainbow banner, about 0.5km long, being pulled around the Circus Maximus where Romans used to race chariots. As the military campaign in Iraq enters its final stages, Washington is preparing to instal an interim US-led administration to oversee reconstruction. Maha Alkatib, an Iraqi woman living in Britain, said it was vital the Iraqi people be allowed to take responsibility for forming their own government. "It is difficult to comprehend a democratic government appointing a government for another state," she said. In Paris, about 11,000 people marched through the streets demanding an immediate ceasefire in Iraq and the withdrawal of US and British troops. Demonstrators, led by several prominent French Communist politicians, carried banners reading "Stop the occupation in Iraq" and "Yes to a democratic and independent Iraq". In Berlin, about 15,000 protesters marched past the headquarters of the opposition CDU conservatives, who have backed the US-led campaign, shouting "peace not occupation". About 200 Kurds also gathered in the city to celebrate the toppling of Saddam. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, tens of thousands burned effigies of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair while in Calcutta, about 15,000 leftist demonstrators formed a human chain around the US and British consulates, shouting "Iraq will become another Vietnam for America". Dozens of hardline students protested noisily in front of the British Embassy in Tehran, shouting "Down with Bush", "Down with England". Although the turn-out in London was far below the roughly million anti-war protesters who marched through the capital in February, organisers said numbers exceeded their expectations. Most of the protests were peaceful and there were few arrests. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/14_04_03/art2.asp * DE VILLEPIN: NO NEW BATTLE FRONTS by Nayla Assaf and Nafez Kawas Lebanon Daily Star, 14th April Visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Sunday that the international community should concentrate on rebuilding Iraq rather than "opening new battle fronts." Speaking to reporters at Beirut International Airport after meeting with Lebanese leaders, de Villepin said the time was inappropriate for Washington to apply pressure on Syria. When asked on France's position toward Washington's accusations against Damascus, he called for "consultation and dialogue" to resolve the current conflict in Iraq, rather than escalating pressure. "The time is for consultation, for dialogue and we should be consolidating our energies to try and find solutions because we have enough problems," he said. "To find a solution, we need to have concerted action," he said, calling for "dialogue between all the countries of the region and with the international community, Europe and the United States." He added that after the collapse of Iraqi regime, "the Middle East does not need a new war. We have to concentrate on giving the Iraqi people the victory they deserve." He also focused on the need to restore security in Iraq and establish a representative Iraqi government. In recent weeks, Syria has been subjected to verbal attacks from members of the US administration. It has repeatedly been accused of aiding Iraq and of providing military and logistical help to Baghdad. "Democracy cannot be imposed, it needs to be created in a climate of respect," France's top diplomat said. He stressed that "international law is capable of finding a solution to guarantee Iraq's future and it is illogical that the UN's role be limited to humanitarian aspects, since we cannot dissociate them from military and political aspects." During his 24-hour visit to Beirut, de Villepin met with President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri before heading for Riyadh, the last stop in his Mideast tour. De Villepin also visited Cairo and Damascus. Before his departure, he held a joint conference at Beirut airport with his Lebanese counterpart, Mahmoud Hammoud. Asked about his position on the Syrian presence in Lebanon, he said that "France is keen on seeing the fulfilment of the Taif Accords," which ended the Lebanese civil war and called for a phased pull out of Syrian troops. Hammoud reiterated the official stance, that Syria's presence here is legitimate and had the full endorsement of the local authorities. [.....] http://www.jordantimes.com/Mon/news/news4.htm * YEMEN GIVES ASYLUM TO IRAQI ENVOY TO ARAB LEAGUE Jordan Times, 14th April SANAA (R) ‹ Yemen has agreed to give asylum to Iraq's representative to the Arab League, who asked to be allowed to live in the country after the fall of the Iraqi government, a Yemeni official said on Sunday. Mohsen Khalil Ibrahim, who was also Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, was expected to arrive in Yemen soon, the government official told Reuters. "Yemen will host him at his request," the official said. Yemen was the site of the largest peaceful protests in the Middle East against the US-led invasion of Iraq. Like most fellow Arab states, the Yemeni government criticised the war on Iraq. Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammad Aldouri, left the United States on Friday for Syria, saying he did not want to represent his country under a US-British occupation. http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25213 * IRAQI EMBASSY CEASES TO FUNCTION IN PAKISTAN Arab News (Saudi Arabia), 15th April ISLAMABAD, 15 April 2003 (AFP): The Iraqi Embassy in Pakistan has ceased to function since the fall of Baghdad to the coalition forces, the Foreign Office here said yesterday. "The government which sent the diplomats of that country is no longer in control. So obviously there is a situation of limbo as far as the embassy is concerned," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told a press conference. Pakistan has however not expelled the Iraqi diplomats, the spokesman said, despite two requests from Washington to all countries hosting Iraqi missions to do so. "It is for the Iraqi diplomats to decide what they wish to do. As far as we are concerned, keeping in view the Islamic tradition of hospitality, we would wait till they have decided what they have to do for themselves," Khan said. He said the Iraqi diplomats were not operating because the previous government of President Saddam Hussein "is not there." He said Iraqi diplomats would enjoy diplomatic immunity "so long as they are here." Khan said since "embassies represent countries and not governments", the Iraqi mission remained in Pakistan but it was "not functioning." The United States has alleged that the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad was the liaison point between Al-Qaeda and Baghdad during the late 1990s when the Taleban were in power in Afghanistan. [.....] http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=574&u=/nm/20030415/wl_nm/ir aq_meeting_dc&ncid=721 * U.S. LAUNCHES TALKS WITH IRAQIS ON POSTWAR RULE by Adrian Croft Yahoo, 15th April [.....] British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put a brave face on the boycott, saying SCIRI were enjoying their new democratic right to choose, and tried to dampen expectations about the meeting. "It is not a one-off, it's the beginning of a process to restore governance," he told a news conference in the Gulf state of Qatar, home to the U.S.-led war headquarters. "It's a start, and I am glad that politics has broken out, that there is vocal opposition, that these Shias feel able to express their opinions -- under the Saddam regime if they had expressed opinions like that they would have ended up in the torture chambers in Basra or ended up dead." "This is not an American or British operation but one we have sponsored to get things going," he said, when asked if it would have been better for the United Nations (news - web sites) to run the talks. That question elicited a swipe at U.N. Security Council permanent members France and Russia, who have scotched Anglo-American hopes that once the war was over they might set aside their vocal opposition to "regime change" imposed on Iraq. Straw said London and Washington saw a vital role for the United Nations but that Security Council members had to accept the new reality on the ground in Iraq and cooperate. "It is the responsibility of all members of the Security Council, but particularly those with vetoes, not to play games but to recognize this new reality and to move forward," he said. [.....] http://www.nationalpost.com/world/story.html?id=ECE98D7D-B287-47A5-90FB A76063AD1B4E * WAR CRIMES CASE PLANNED AGAINST U.S by Steven Edwards National Post, 15th April UNITED NATIONS - A coalition of lawyers and human rights groups yesterday unveiled a bid to use the UN's new International Criminal Court as a tool to restrain American military power. In a move Washington said vindicated U.S. claims that the court would be used for political purposes, the rights activists are working to compile war crimes cases against the United States and its chief ally in Iraq, Britain. "There is a way that the United States can be accused ... of aiding and abetting war crimes," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The U.S. last year renounced the ICC, predicting it would become a political tool for opponents of U.S. foreign policy to launch frivolous prosecutions against U.S. military and diplomatic personnel. "It appears they are trying to manufacture a case against the United States," said a senior official with the Bush administration. "So this clearly would be an example of the type of politicization that we're concerned with." As a non-member, the United States would normally be outside of ICC jurisdiction unless it was suspected of crimes in a country that is an ICC member, which Iraq is not. But the fact that Britain is a member has given the rights activists a springboard for a case that argues U.S. air raids that killed civilians were war crimes. "The U.S. used bombers that took off from England ... and from Diego Garcia, also U.K. territory," said Mr. Ratner, referring to a British Indian Ocean island possession. Britain, as an ICC member, could be prosecuted on a much wider array of activities that resulted in civilian deaths, the activists said. Both U.S. and British officials have repeatedly said their forces make maximum efforts to avoid civilian casualties and never target civilians, which would violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Rights activists joining Mr. Ratner yesterday were Phil Shiner of the British-based Public Interest Lawyers, and Roger Norman of the Committee on Economic and Social Rights. They said five eminent international lawyers will outline a case against the United States and Britain next month for submission first to an international "alternative" court called the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal in Rome, then the prosecutor's office of the ICC in The Hague. People who had volunteered as Saddam's "human shields" will be among those contributing testimony. "Any evidence we can get hold of, we will present," Mr. Shiner said. "The [ICC] prosecutor would have a duty to investigate if there was credible evidence." Mr. Shiner said the activists' case will probe the coalition's use, or suspected use, of cluster bombs, depleted uranium ammunition and fuel-air explosives. These weapons are unauthorized, he claimed, because they "can't distinguish between civilian or military" targets. A cluster bomb consists of a canister that breaks apart to release a large number of small bombs. Because it has no precision guidance, it can wander off target if dropped from medium to high altitudes. Some of the bomblets typically do not explode, presenting a long term threat to civilians. While coalition forces say they do not use such bombs in civilian areas, U.S. forces launched an investigation into reports U.S. cluster bombs killed at least 11 civilians in Hilla, a city 100 kilometres south of Baghdad and the scene of heavy fighting. Depleted uranium ammunition can pierce armour. But as a by-product of uranium enrichment, depleted uranium is mildly radioactive. It is also a heavy metal, and therefore potentially poisonous. "We know it has been used," Mr. Shiner said. However, he admitted the use of fuel-air explosives, which create giant fire balls, is not certain. Mr. Shiner said the activists' case would also question coalition "methods," citing strikes on shopping markets and an attack that resulted in the deaths of two journalists at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The United States and Britain have said at least one market strike may have been caused by Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. U.S. forces said U.S. troops were returning fire from suspected Iraqi forces in the Palestine Hotel. The Bush administration official said: "This is a baseless accusation and we'll treat it as such." The ICC opened its doors for evidence collection on July 1, 2002, and has jurisdiction over crimes committed after that date. Canada is a strong supporter of the court. Philippe Kirsch, a Canadian international law specialist, is president of 18 ICC judges, but a prosecutor has yet to be selected. In 2000, the prosecutor for the UN's special war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia threw out a bid by activist groups to prosecute NATO for war crimes over the 1999 bombing of Kosovo. That experience provided lessons, however. "We wouldn't be wasting our time if we didn't think this was credible," Mr. Shiner said. The rights activists also said yesterday the United States should rethink its rejection last week of an ad hoc UN court to deal with the past crimes of Saddam's regime and any crimes by Iraqis against coalition forces. The U.S.-proposed alternative was "victors' justice," according to Mr. Ratner. The United States is in the process of identifying Iraqi jurists who can help create new Iraqi courts that will try key members of Saddam's regime for past crimes. Washington also reserves the right to try Iraqis itself for war crimes committed during the current conflict. Among those alleged crimes are mistreatment of coalition prisoners and the deceptive use of the white surrender flag. Because Iraq is not a member of the ICC, Saddam Hussein cannot be brought before it. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk