Iraq Governing Body Prepares for Meeting

The first post-Saddam Hussein governing body of Iraqis will hold its inaugural meeting Sunday, a watershed event on the nation’s path to democracy, said the top U.S. administrator, promising the council will have “real political power.”

Iraqi political leaders and the U.S.-led provisional government were in the final stages of setting up the political body, according to diplomats and negotiators, who expected the formal announcement of the council’s makeup as soon as Sunday.

L. Paul Bremer, Iraq’s American administrator, said the Governing Council of Iraq planned to meet for the first time Sunday and is part of the U.S. “plan to support the establishment of this government of, by and for Iraqis.”

“It represents all the strands from Iraq’s complicated social structure – Shiites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds, men and women, Christians and Turkmens,” Bremer wrote in an opinion piece posted on the New York Times web site Saturday.

“The council will immediately exercise real political power, appointing interim ministers and working with the coalition on policy and budgets,” he added.

In another step forward, the U.S. military said it was turning control of a restive western city over to Iraqi police, the first time coalition forces have agreed to leave security in the hands of local law enforcement in a major population center.

Iraq’s seven main groups that opposed Saddam’s rule and other political leaders met Saturday in Baghdad and were hoping to hold a final organizational meeting in the capital the next day, said Adel Noory Mohammed, a leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Union. He said final details, such as how to announce the council, were still being worked out.

Bremer had scheduled a news conference for Saturday at which he was expected to announce the council, but the meeting was canceled and no reason was given.

Many Iraqi political leaders want the council to announce itself, to give the appearance of independence from the occupying powers. Others want to hold a joint news conference with top U.S. officials to highlight cooperation.

The council will consist of 25 to 30 prominent Iraqis and will have the power to name ministers and select an independent central bank governor. It will be consulted by Iraq’s American leaders on all important issues and is meant to be the forerunner of a larger constitutional assembly that will have about a year to draft a new constitution.

National elections to select a fully sovereign Iraqi government are expected to follow sometime in late 2004 or early 2005.

The Americans promised a constitutional assembly would be set up within weeks in the aftermath of Saddam’s ouster in April. But they revised their plans several times.

The governing council had at first been envisioned as a consultative panel, but Bremer later acceded to Iraqi demands for real political power.

U.S. backtracking on the issue has fueled a growing perception among Iraqis that the American mission amounts to colonization rather than liberation, and U.S. troops have become the daily targets of a growing insurgency.

“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,” said Mohammed of the Kurdistan Islamic Union “The new government, if it is a strong government, will have the respect of the Iraqi street, and people will obey it.”

The council is expected to have a Shiite majority. Sixty percent of Iraq’s 24 million people are Shiite Muslims, but the country has been ruled for decades by minority Sunnis led by Saddam.

Internationally known former exiles like Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Council and former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are expected to be on the panel. Groups that remained in Iraq during Saddam’s 23-year rule will have a more prominent role, the western diplomat said.

Women – who make up 55 percent of Iraq’s population after decades of war – and minorities also will be represented.

In another sign of America’s emerging attitude of compromise, the military said Saturday it was sharply cutting back its presence in Fallujah at the request of police and the U.S.-appointed mayor after several attacks in the town by Saddam loyalists.

Police in the city demanded Thursday that American forces withdraw from their station, saying they feared being caught in the cross hairs if insurgents attacked again. Americans went one step further, turning the entire city of 200,000 over to the Iraqi forces.

Iraqi police were widely deployed on the roads and downtown. Some of them were directing traffic while others protected government buildings.

The military said it would “allow the Fallujah police to patrol the streets themselves instead of jointly with military police.” It said it would keep a quick-reaction team on call in case the police needed help.

People in Fallujah said they were pleased with the American pullout.

“The American decision to withdraw is a good step and we have the capabilities to protect the city,” policeman Walid Jasim said.

Added Hamed al-Kubeisi, a 39-year-old shop owner: “We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.”

Despite the announcement, an AP reporter in the town saw 10 American patrols as well as six U.S. Humvees and soldiers outside the office of Mayor Taha Bedewi. Bedewi insisted, however, that the Americans were in town to discuss reconstruction and that he was being protected by Iraqi police.

In other developments:

– Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is overseeing Iraq’s Interior Ministry, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested five former members of Saddam’s personal security forces, four of whom were cousins of the former dictator. Authorities seized pictures that showed the four cousins torturing an unidentified man, Kerik said.

Kerik also appealed Saturday to former Iraqi police officers dismissed on political grounds in the last 10 years to apply for reinstatement. He said those under 45 years of age should apply at police stations from Aug. 15 to Nov. 1.

– The military reported that one soldier of the 4th Infantry Division died and a second was wounded in “a non-hostile gunshot incident.” No details were available.

– U.S. military police securing a prison west of Baghdad came under attack early Saturday, but no casualties were reported, said Cpl. Todd Pruden, a U.S. military spokesman.

– A U.S.-appointed city council took office in Baqouba, a city northeast of Baghdad that has been the site of attacks on coalition forces.

-Attackers in a passing pickup truck threw a homemade bomb at U.S. soldiers guarding a hospital in downtown Baghdad, slightly injuring one of them.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: AP reporters Sameer N. Yacoub in Fallujah and Jamie Tarabay in Baghdad contributed to this report.