June 13, 2004
By Jeffrey Gettleman
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 12 — With less than three weeks to go before sovereignty returns to Iraq, American and Iraqi officials are saying that much of the transfer has already happened.
The new interim Iraqi government has been formed, the old governing council has been dissolved and the majority of the ministries, including some crucial ones like oil, transportation and foreign affairs, have been turned over to Iraqi management. Meanwhile, both American advisers and Iraqi leaders said their roles had already shifted, with Iraqis running day-to-day affairs and Americans dispensing advice — and dollars.
Walid Saleh, planning director for the Water Resources Ministry, said his ministry used to be controlled by a team of six American water experts. Now, Mr. Saleh said, these advisers have become "consultants."
"They work for us," Mr. Saleh explained. "They are very good technicians and they give us expertise. But we make the decisions."
The United States will continue to steer Iraq through its control over the $18.4 billion reconstruction budget and the presence of 140,000 American troops, who are struggling to end the insurgency.
On Saturday, a Foreign Ministry official of the newly named government was assassinated. [Page 26.]
[On Sunday, a senior official in Iraq's education ministry, Kamal al-Jarrah, was shot and killed in Baghdad, a ministry official said, according to Reuters. Mr. Jarrah, the director-general for cultural relations, was attacked by gunmen as he left his house and died
later in a hospital, the official said.]
Besides the money and troops, a large United States Embassy is being built on the grounds of the occupation authority in central
Baghdad, essentially to serve as a shadow government. Yet the process that has been unfolding, with Iraqi leaders taking control of
government operations and American advisers receding into the background, provides the clearest preview yet of what the
American-Iraqi dynamic will be like after June 30.
On that day, in an elaborate ceremony that is still in the planning stages, L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq,
will probably present a written declaration to the chief of Iraq's judicial council recognizing the nation's sovereignty and formally
ending the occupation. After that, the two countries will resume diplomatic relations, a process that usually takes the form of an
exchange of letters between heads of state.
In renovated government buildings and offices that smell of fresh paint, the American-Iraqi relationship is taking a fundamentally
new shape, one that is sure to be tested by the pressures to provide security and to set up a legislature and judiciary. So far, the
political focus has been on the executive branch, selecting the president, the prime minister and a cabinet of 31 ministers.
In the days before June 30, both Iraqis and Americans are eager to demonstrate how independent Iraq already is. "June 30 will not
be some magical date when Iraqis suddenly assume authority," said Dan Senor, an American adviser. "The process is already well
under way."
American advisers say they have no more major decrees to issue. All the substantial political changes have been put in place.
Several senior advisers to the Iraqi ministries are even leaving the country before the June 30 ceremonies because they say their
work is done.
"June 1st was the big event," said one American official, referring to when the new interim Iraqi government was announced, with the top leaders negotiated by the United Nations and United States. "At that moment, there was something palpable," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "A bunch of us were saying to ourselves, `It's over now, it's time to let go.'"
Marc Sievers, a State Department official and senior adviser to the Iraqi foreign affairs ministry, said Iraqis recently chose diplomats to serve in the nation's 47 embassies. "We were shown the list, we weren't asked," Mr. Sievers said. "That's a sovereign decision."
It is also a dramatic change from six months ago, Mr. Sievers said, when he would bring tasks to the ministry, "and they would essentially ask me what they should do."
Mufeed al-Jazairi, the minister of culture, said that ever since a formal "sovereignty ceremony" last month, complete with songs, speeches and cake, his ministry, with 2,300 employees, had been operating independently from the occupation government.
"I am the boss," Mr. Jazairi said. "I am deciding about everything."
Other ministers, though, concede that the United States will continue to play a big role in Iraq. The question is, how big?
"Will there be obstacles?" asked Bakhtiar Amin, the new human rights minister. "Will they be in my way? I don't know. But I'm not worried. The way I see it, I wouldn't be sitting in this office if it weren't for the Americans."
With most of the crucial political decisions resolved, Iraq's tense security situation remains the greatest concern swirling around the
June 30 date. Mr. Senor and other officials said a large terrorist attack was likely. "We're going to be tested," Mr. Senor said.
In the last few weeks, American military commanders have been pushing to field as many Iraqi forces as possible. During a recent
tour of a military base in Taji, Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton ticked off the current Iraqi security staff: 92,000 police officers, 74,000
facility guards, 25,000 civil defense soldiers, 17,000 border guards and 7,000 army soldiers.
"By this point, we have met or exceeded most of our goals in terms of numbers," General Eaton said, though he acknowledged that
the quality of the forces was not what it should be.
After June 30, Iraqi and American forces will continue to serve with each other and under American command, though the finer
points of the relationship have not yet been worked out.
Meanwhile, some security issues continue to be problems.
In Falluja, in the heart of the Sunni triangle, masked insurgents have returned to the streets despite a celebrated agreement for
United States troops to pull out of the city and for an all-Iraqi force to restore order. In Najaf, in the south, Shiite militiamen loyal to
the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr attacked a police station and burned eight police cars in the last week, despite two truce
agreements.
The process of making ministries autonomous began in March. But it seems to be a sprint to the finish, with ministries being turned
over nearly every day now as American officials take an increasingly low profile.
There is no better evidence than Mr. Bremer's schedule in his final days. A veteran diplomat who came to Baghdad more than a
year ago and quickly patented the fad of wearing business suits and combat boots, he has gone from signing orders and handing out
decrees to dispensing advice and saying goodbyes.
"I'm counting on you to give me your long-lost recipe for fesanjoon," Mr. Bremer said in a recent meeting with one of Iraq's new
vice presidents, referring to a favorite local dish of chicken, pomegranate juice and walnuts. When the vice president, Ibrahim
Jafari, promised he would, Mr. Bremer laughed and said, "Oh, yeah, I've heard it before — promises, promises."
Mr. Bremer has been appearing in public much less. At the swearing-in of the new government, Mr. Bremer sat in the audience, in
the second row. When it came time to announce the new militia policy last week, even though it was Mr. Bremer who essentially
wrote the policy, it was Iyad Allawi, the new prime minister, who announced it.
"We want people to get used to the idea of him leaving," said one senior American official who asked that his name not be used.
"Basically, we want Bremer to fade away."
Some Iraqi politicians who have worked closely with Mr. Bremer said that behind the scenes he was still dominating. Raja
al-Khuzai, a member of the governing council, the advisory body that was dissolved when the interim government was announced,
said she had once counted herself among Mr. Bremer's friends. But last month, Dr. Khuzai said, Mr. Bremer alienated her when he
intervened in a dispute over choosing the new Iraqi president. The council favored Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar; Mr. Bremer wanted Adnan
Pachachi.
According to Dr. Khuzai and other council members, when they gathered for a vote, Mr. Bremer stepped into the council chambers
and told them he would not honor their choice.
"He told us, `You do not represent the Iraqi people,' " Dr. Khuzai said. "I was shocked by this. Two members of this council have
been murdered. All of us have received death threats. And Mr. Bremer told us we don't represent Iraqis."
Mr. Bremer declined to be interviewed. His spokesman, Mr. Senor, took issue with Dr. Khuzai's account, saying that Mr. Bremer's
standard explanation was always that United Nations officials would pick the Iraqi leadership after meeting with multiple Iraqi
organizations, including the governing council.
As it happened, the council's choice for president won.
But Dr. Khuzai's hard feelings against Mr. Bremer linger. "He used us, and now that he is finished with us, he will throw us away,"
Dr. Khuzai said. "I used to say I would cry when Mr. Bremer left Iraq. But not now. I will not miss him."
Dexter Filkins and James Glanz contributed reporting for this article.
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Citation:
Jeffrey Gettleman, "Iraqis Start to Exercise Power Even Before Date for Turnover," New York Times, 13 June 2004. Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/international/middleeast/13HAND.html?ei=1&en=9a62d807f2a99cad&ex=1088144048&pagewanted=print&position= (13 June 2004)