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[casi] News, 09-16/04/03 (12)



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.




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