lennart
27-04-03, 17:24
En de Amerikanen kiezen de kant van Chalabi.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2636845
U.S. Imposes Will on Iraq's Kut After 'Mayor' Flees
Sun April 27, 2003 08:27 AM ET
By Saul Hudson
KUT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces have imposed their will on the strategic eastern Iraqi city of Kut, forcing out a cleric who had taken charge and seizing the mayor's office in a symbolic show of power.
Marines stood guard on the perimeter walls at Kut city hall on Sunday and a U.S. administrator held meetings inside it, after self-styled mayor Abbas Abu Ragef -- also known as Saed Abbas -- quit town.
Calling himself "the father of the people" and removing a portrait of Saddam Hussein from the mayor's office, Abbas had until late on Friday taken up residence as leader of the 380,000 people in Kut, an agricultural hub near the Iranian border.
His position was not unusual in postwar Iraq, where local leaders have stepped into key roles and filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam's rule -- in some cases without consulting local residents and in defiance of the U.S. invaders.
Hundreds of his supporters had daubed the walls with graffiti reading "Yes to Islam" and hung up posters of Shi'ite Muslim clerics in exile in Iran.
They had guarded the compound and vowed to defend their leader to the death.
In the end they went without a fight.
Marginalized in Kut by the U.S. Marines, who worked with other officials to coordinate joint Iraqi-U.S. foot patrols, restore electricity and water supplies, Abbas suddenly left the mayor's office -- and the city -- after U.S. troops threatened to arrest him.
"The Americans talk about changing things for the better," he told Reuters just hours before quitting the building. "But they will not make anything better because they do not know how to work with the Iraqi people."
"I do not have tanks and the Americans are persuading everybody to avoid working with me. I guess, sooner or later I'll leave. What else can I do?"
Abbas, a retired schoolteacher and religious leader said he was not a member of any political organisation.
His quiet departure and disappearance from the city was a relief to the Marines, who had avoided entering the compound for fear of sparking violence in a city that has seen stone-throwing at anti-American protests and sniper fire at U.S. bases.
(....)
PROBLEMS NOT OVER IN KUT
But the U.S. forces' problems are not over with the departure of Abbas, whose supporters at a local mosque said he had retreated into hiding well outside the city 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
There has been widespread looting and firefights between different Iraqi factions since Abbas left, prompting the Marines to impose a night-time curfew.
The United States considers Kut important because it is just 60 km (37 miles) from the eastern border with Shi'ite Muslim ruled Iran.
U.S. Lieutenant Jamie Murphy said Marines were struggling to root out foreign instigators. "The Iraqis want peace. It's the Iranians who are the trouble-makers," he said.
The United States is worried by the connections of Iraq's Shi'ites to Iran, the Islamic state the United States has labeled part of an axis of evil, along with Iraq under Saddam.
Washington fears Iran could influence Iraq's Shi'ite majority to create a fundamentalist Muslim state after decades of repression by Saddam's Sunni-dominated government.
On the outskirts of Kut, U.S. forces are training Iraqi troops to set up frontier checkpoints and keep out unwanted Iranians, special forces Master Sergeant Tom Rosenbarger said.
The Iraqi troops are linked to Ahmad Chalabi, the pro-U.S. head of the Iraqi National Congress and who is considered a Washington favorite.
But banners have appeared in Kut declaring: "No to Chalabi" and many residents of Kut resent what they see as U.S. meddling in their political affairs.
"Where is the democracy the Americans talk of?" asked schoolteacher Daud Al-Zaidi. "Their only way of operating is with threats and guns. They are just the same as Saddam."
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2636845
U.S. Imposes Will on Iraq's Kut After 'Mayor' Flees
Sun April 27, 2003 08:27 AM ET
By Saul Hudson
KUT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces have imposed their will on the strategic eastern Iraqi city of Kut, forcing out a cleric who had taken charge and seizing the mayor's office in a symbolic show of power.
Marines stood guard on the perimeter walls at Kut city hall on Sunday and a U.S. administrator held meetings inside it, after self-styled mayor Abbas Abu Ragef -- also known as Saed Abbas -- quit town.
Calling himself "the father of the people" and removing a portrait of Saddam Hussein from the mayor's office, Abbas had until late on Friday taken up residence as leader of the 380,000 people in Kut, an agricultural hub near the Iranian border.
His position was not unusual in postwar Iraq, where local leaders have stepped into key roles and filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam's rule -- in some cases without consulting local residents and in defiance of the U.S. invaders.
Hundreds of his supporters had daubed the walls with graffiti reading "Yes to Islam" and hung up posters of Shi'ite Muslim clerics in exile in Iran.
They had guarded the compound and vowed to defend their leader to the death.
In the end they went without a fight.
Marginalized in Kut by the U.S. Marines, who worked with other officials to coordinate joint Iraqi-U.S. foot patrols, restore electricity and water supplies, Abbas suddenly left the mayor's office -- and the city -- after U.S. troops threatened to arrest him.
"The Americans talk about changing things for the better," he told Reuters just hours before quitting the building. "But they will not make anything better because they do not know how to work with the Iraqi people."
"I do not have tanks and the Americans are persuading everybody to avoid working with me. I guess, sooner or later I'll leave. What else can I do?"
Abbas, a retired schoolteacher and religious leader said he was not a member of any political organisation.
His quiet departure and disappearance from the city was a relief to the Marines, who had avoided entering the compound for fear of sparking violence in a city that has seen stone-throwing at anti-American protests and sniper fire at U.S. bases.
(....)
PROBLEMS NOT OVER IN KUT
But the U.S. forces' problems are not over with the departure of Abbas, whose supporters at a local mosque said he had retreated into hiding well outside the city 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
There has been widespread looting and firefights between different Iraqi factions since Abbas left, prompting the Marines to impose a night-time curfew.
The United States considers Kut important because it is just 60 km (37 miles) from the eastern border with Shi'ite Muslim ruled Iran.
U.S. Lieutenant Jamie Murphy said Marines were struggling to root out foreign instigators. "The Iraqis want peace. It's the Iranians who are the trouble-makers," he said.
The United States is worried by the connections of Iraq's Shi'ites to Iran, the Islamic state the United States has labeled part of an axis of evil, along with Iraq under Saddam.
Washington fears Iran could influence Iraq's Shi'ite majority to create a fundamentalist Muslim state after decades of repression by Saddam's Sunni-dominated government.
On the outskirts of Kut, U.S. forces are training Iraqi troops to set up frontier checkpoints and keep out unwanted Iranians, special forces Master Sergeant Tom Rosenbarger said.
The Iraqi troops are linked to Ahmad Chalabi, the pro-U.S. head of the Iraqi National Congress and who is considered a Washington favorite.
But banners have appeared in Kut declaring: "No to Chalabi" and many residents of Kut resent what they see as U.S. meddling in their political affairs.
"Where is the democracy the Americans talk of?" asked schoolteacher Daud Al-Zaidi. "Their only way of operating is with threats and guns. They are just the same as Saddam."