The United Nations’s adviser on Iraq made a surprising attack on Washington’s handling of its year-long occupation this week, condemning the detention of prisoners without trial or charge and offering a withering analysis of the United States’s governance of the country.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a highly respected veteran diplomat who used to be the senior UN representative in Afghanistan and now serves as the special adviser on Iraq to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, also criticised the Americans for their onslaught on Falluja.
”The cordoning off and siege of a city is not acceptable. Collective punishment is not acceptable,” he said.
His comments, on a day when the US said that another eight of its soldiers had died, were unexpectedly sharp.
Brahimi is known as a cautious diplomat in public, but he made it clear that he was speaking in the name of most Iraqis.
After a 10-day visit to Iraq, where he met ministers, politicians, trade unionists, intellectuals, women’s groups and other civil associations, he prefaced his catalogue of US mistakes by saying: ”We heard of many grievances which need to be addressed.”
Brahimi made it clear that he thought it a grave mistake for the US to have dismissed thousands of qualified professional people, including teachers, doctors and engineers, simply because of their links with the now outlawed Ba’ath Party.
He said sacking former army officers had caused problems.
There was only a crumb of comfort for Paul Bremer, the US administrator of Iraq, who is reeling from the hostage seizures, the collapse of security in large parts of the country, the failure to subdue the largely Sunni city of Falluja, and the uprising by radical Shia militias, all in the space of the past two weeks.
Brahimi gave a clear endorsement of the US plan to appoint a prime minister as Iraq’s chief executive and disband the governing council.
Most of the 25 members of the council appointed by the US last July have been arguing for it to double its size and remain after the transfer of sovereignty on June 30. They will find it hard to resist their demise now that it has the backing of the UN.
Massoud Barzani, the council’s current president, who stood alongside Brahimi at Wednesday’s press conference, joked nervously when asked if he agreed. ”Our life began before the establishment of the governing council. Our life will continue,” he said.
Brahimi said he was ”confident” that a caretaker government could be in place by June 30, the US deadline for restoring power to Iraqis.
He suggested that a national conference should be held in July to romote ”national dialogue, consensus-building and national reconciliation”. It could elect a consultative assembly to work alongside the new government until elections next January.
He described his comments as ”a few preliminary observations and tentative ideas”.
He planned to make a second visit to Iraq before giving his recommendations to Annan.
His visit was severely restricted by the collapse of security and his team only managed to visit the northern city of Mosul. He made it clear that if the UN returns to help prepare for elections, it will need security guarantees.
As he made his comments there were more clashes between Sunni insurgents and US marines in Falluja. Witnesses said an air strike hit the Hay al-Dubat area at dusk. Four civilians and two rebels died in overnight fighting.
Iraqi mediators said they had extended the much-violated truce for 48 hours. They had achieved an agreement under which the Iraqi police would return to duty and US forces would withdraw. There was no immediate comment from the US military, which has taken no direct part in the talks.
Army officers said that eight more US soldiers had died in combat, bringing to 93 the number killed in action in April.
In Baghdad US soldiers fired on looters raiding a military lorry, killing or wounding several. In Mosul, four civilians were killed by a rocket aimed at a police station.
A French television journalist who was taken hostage as he filmed an American military convoy being attacked was freed. Capa Television in Paris said Alexandre Jordanov was kidnapped on Sunday.
On Wednesday a rocket hit the Sheraton hotel in central Baghdad, where foreign contractors and journalists are staying, but caused no casualties. — Â