BAGHDAD, April 17: Iraq’s confusing post-war administrative landscape became even more blurred on Thursday as US forces denied sanctioning the appointments of two Iraqis claiming to be the governor and mayor of Baghdad.
The political jockeying for position in Iraq gathered steam as the United States prepared to bring in tens of thousands of new troops to stabilize the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
On Wednesday, two close associates of an Iraqi opposition leader said they had been elected governor and mayor of Baghdad by tribal and religious chiefs acting with the consent of occupying US troops.
But Captain Joe Plenzler, a spokesman for the US marines here, shot down the claim. “Anyone declaring themselves as mayor or anything else is just not true. The US government has not appointed anyone.
“Anyone can call themselves anything they want to,” Plenzler said. “But future appointments like this will be handled through USAID (the US Agency for International Development).”
Iraqis have been thirsty for any show of civil authority to stem widespread looting and restore basic services which have been cut since the war.
Gen Tommy Franks, commander of the Iraq operations, claimed after a brief trip to Baghdad on Thursday that looting was now decreasing.
“I think you will continue to see it go down because the Iraqis are now stepping up and controlling the problems for themselves,” Gen Franks said in Kuwait.
Mohammed Mohsen Zubeidi, a veteran anti-Saddam politician, earlier looked official enough with a huge media entourage to boot as he proclaimed himself head of a new interim administration for Baghdad.
Mohsen Zubeidi said Iraq’s political life was reawakening, with 65 parties preparing to resume activities banned by the government before the fall of Baghdad on April 9.
“We will be a model of democracy,” the 51-year-old Zubeidi said at a news conference at the Palestine Hotel before leaving on a tour of the battered capital with a flock of reporters and photographers in tow.
The balding, moustachioed Zubeidi, who spent 15 years in northern Iraq and was under a death sentence from Saddam’s government, said he was heading an executive committee tasked with restoring normalcy.
“Then the Iraqi people will be free to choose their government,” said Zubeidi, a close associate of Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmad Chalabi, who is backed by the Pentagon for a future leadership role.
He was vague about the interim arrangements, but said they could include members of the Baath Party except “the criminals — and they know who they are — who will not dare to sit with us”.
Mr Zubeidi said he and INC “General” Jaudat Obeidi, named interim mayor of the capital of five million people, had been coordinating with the US forces here and meeting them every day.
Chalabi arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday and was staying in a house that once belonged to one of Saddam’s sons in an affluent district of Baghdad. He was not immediately available for interview.
Mr Zubeidi said executive committees were being set up in other cities as well as Baghdad and the priority was to restore healthcare, water, electricity, gas distribution and other essential services.
Power has been out here since April 4. But a US military spokesman said the marines hoped to restore electricity supplies to more than 50 per cent of the population of the capital by Friday.
Efforts were also under way to revive the Iraqi media, Zubeidi said. The radio began broadcasting on Wednesday and television will start in a few days, carrying public service announcements and other vital information. —AFP
