Iraq Convenes First Post-Saddam Council

A 25-member governing council of prominent Iraqis from diverse political and religious backgrounds was named at an inaugural meeting Sunday, the first national body since the fall of Saddam Hussein and a crucial first step on the nation’s path to democracy.

In its first public act, the council declared April 9 as a national holiday marking Saddam’s fall from power and wiped out six dates that were celebrated under the old regime.

“The establishment of this council represents the Iraqi national will after the collapse of the dictatorial regime,” said council member Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, a prominent Shiite cleric from Najaf, announcing the new holiday.

The multiethnic panel will have real political muscle, with the power to name ministers and approve the 2004 budget, but final control of Iraq still rests with the top American administrator, L. Paul Bremer. Former Foreign Minister and council member Adnan Pachachi said he does not expect Bremer to veto council decisions and believed negotiations would settle all disputes.

Yet to be seen, however, is whether the council can convince the Iraqi people that it represents them, despite the fact they never had a chance to vote on its members. Coalition leaders say an election in Iraq is not yet practical.

The council said it would select its leadership on Monday. The majority of members are Shiites – who make up a 60 percent majority of the 24 million population – and who suffered deeply under Saddam’s minority Sunni government. The council makeup was decided after more than two months of deliberations to strike a balance between Iraq’s factions: 13 Shiites, 5 Kurds, 5 Sunnis, 1 Christian and 1 Turkoman. Three members are women.

The council members, some dressed in traditional Arabic robes, others in Islamic clerical garb and some in business suits, sat in a semicircle of chairs on a stage at a downtown Baghdad convention center. Bremer and other dignitaries watched from the front row.

“I helped deliver thousands of Iraqi babies, and now I am taking part in the birth of a new country and a new rule based on women’s rights, humanity, unity and freedom,” said Raja Habib al-Khuzaai, one of the female members and the director of a maternity hospital in southern Iraq.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. representative to Iraq, called the day “historic” and an important step toward returning sovereignty back to the Iraqi people.

“Iraq is moving back to where it rightfully belongs, at peace with itself and a member of the community of nations,” de Mello said. He added that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan promised the world body would be “here for you, in any way you wish, and for as long as you need.”

Many of the council members were vehemently pro-American in comments made during the news conference, and several criticized Arabic television channels and the British Broadcasting Corp. for coverage they saw as pro-Saddam.

“For how long are these (Arabic) satellite channels going to wait for Saddam to return? Saddam is on the rubbish heap of history,” al-Uloum said in response to a questions from a correspondent with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.

Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the once-exiled Iraqi National Congress and a council member, condemned continuing attacks on American forces in the country,

“The Iraqi people consider them forces of liberation and they don’t consider these attacks as acts of resistance,” Chalabi said.

Iraqis have clamored for say in the running of their country, and several U.S. delays and backtracking fueled a common perception that the Americans were here to colonize, rather than liberate, the country.

On the panel are Chalabi, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, leaders of the two main Kurdish groups, and Pachachi.

The group, however, is dominated by lesser known Iraqis, many of whom remained in their country during Saddam’s 23-year dictatorship. A Turkoman woman and an Assyrian Christian are on the list, as well as a human rights activist and a member of Iraq’s Communist Party.

“The launch of the Governing Council will mean that Iraqis play a more central role in running their country,” Bremer said in a speech on Iraqi television Saturday. “It will represent the diversity of Iraq: whether you are Shiite or Sunni, Arab or Kurd, Baghdadi or Basrawi, man or woman, you will see yourself represented in this council.”

The panel is meant to be the forerunner of a larger constitutional assembly that will have about a year to draft a new constitution. A senior Western diplomat has told The Associated Press that a preliminary constitutional committee is expected to be named within two to three weeks.

By mid- to late-September, the 200-250 strong Constitutional Convention is expected to take office and begin deliberations. The convention is expected to take nine months to a year to produce a draft constitution, after which Iraqis will hold a referendum to vote on the document. Free elections to pick a government are expected to follow.

In the streets, Iraqis welcomed the move.

“The formation of this council which represents all sectors of Iraqi society is the birth of democracy in the country. It is better than Saddam’s government of destruction and dictatorship,” said Razzak Abdul-Zahra, a 35-year-old engineer.

Others were hopeful but skeptical of U.S. intentions.

“We do not want to see this council used by the Americans as a tool to achieve their goals in Iraq,” said Bassem al-Duleimi, a 22-year-old university student.

The U.S.-led administration has revised its plans for the council several times. At one point it was envisioned as only a consultative panel, but Bremer later acceded to Iraqi demands that it be given real political power.

Adel Noory Mohammed, a leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, one of the groups represented on the council, said it is in the interests of both the Iraqis and the Americans that the council be given wide powers.

“If the Americans do not get this done quickly they will lose even more legitimacy and popularity in the eyes of the Iraqi people and they will put themselves under enormous pressure,” he said. “The new government, if it is a strong government, will have the respect of the Iraqi street, and people will obey it.”