The Hindu : Troops won't dig in their heels: Bremer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003

International

International

Troops won't dig in their heels: Bremer

BAGHDAD July 15. Iraq's new United States-backed Governing Council agreed today to set up a tribunal to try war criminals, a spokesman for a key member of the Council said.

Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, said the Council decided to set up a commission charged with laying down laws, local or international, that would allow it to put suspected war criminals on trial.

``The Council decided to form a judicial high commission to look into the various types of crimes... and to try war criminals,'' he said. The 25-member Council was formed on Sunday, the first Iraqi national political body since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein on April 9.

Mr. Qanbar said the Council also decided to form a commission to look into ways to ``uproot'' Mr. Hussein's once powerful Ba'ath Party from Iraqi society.

Bringing members of the former regime to justice was among the most pressing issues facing the Governing Council, the spokesman said. The Council has some executive powers, like nominating ministers, changing laws, helping in naming a committee to draft a new constitution and prepare for free elections. But the final say remains in the hands of the U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bremer promised that U.S. and British troops will not stay in the country ``any longer than necessary''. He said with the establishment of the Governing Council, it is now up to Iraqis to write a new constitution for their country, which will then be voted on in a referendum. ``Then our job, the coalition's job, will be done. We have no desire to stay any longer than necessary'' Mr. Bremer said.

He has tried to portray the Governing Council as largely independent, and his Tuesday remarks implied that the business of establishing a working political system — as well as establishing security — is now up to the Iraqis. A U.S. departure depends on how quickly they do that.

In another development, the Arabic television channel Al-Arabiya broadcast a message on Tuesday by a group calling itself ``Liberating Iraq's Army,'' warning countries from sending multinational troops to Iraq as serving the American occupation.

In a message sent to the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the group pledged that resistance to U.S. forces will continue.

India recently decided to back out of a pledge to send troops to Iraq, and other countries have also voiced reluctance.

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