25 April 2003
The chief civil administrator of Iraq, retired US general Jay Garner, announced Thursday that the process of governing Iraq would start next week with the reopening of ministries “which will have Iraqi faces on them” to offer services to the public.
Garner also stressed that Iraqi exiles enlisted by Washington to help run important sectors, such as oil, would only be deployed on a temporary basis.
But there was still no word as to how Iraq would be governed politically.
In his first press conference since he arrived in Baghdad Monday, the head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) said the ministries would be run by Iraqis, while his organization would be in charge of other “governmental functions and reconstruction.”
Garner added: “When the Iraqis are ready to accept management of that [reconstruction], we’ll try to give it to them, [but] there’s no calendar on this.”
The first step, he said, would be to get people back to their previous jobs at the ministries, especially where public services are concerned. After widespread looting and destruction that rendered most ministries uninhabitable, Garner said his staff would find new facilities, or replace furniture and computers where offices still exist but are empty. He even promised that as soon as employees are identified to ORHA, the organization would start paying their salaries. Those returning to their jobs in ministries will be vetted, however, using a US database.
Garner did not say where funds would come from, other than that oil proceeds would be spent inside Iraq. “Once sanctions are lifted and oil begins to be sold, for things other than food, all these revenues will come back into Iraq. It will be for the Iraqi people and for the reconstruction of Iraq. It will be for the new Iraqi democratic government,” he said.
As for Iraqi exiles recruited by the US to take positions in Iraq, Garner said such people would only be brought in to work on a temporary basis. “When we perceived that one of the greatest challenges we’d have will be the restarting of the ministries, we asked free Iraqis living in several democratic countries who had technocratic experience if they could come simply as advisors for a period of 30-90 days, and share their experiences in those technical fields with the Iraqis here that are part of the ministries,” he said.
These advisors could include Iraqis in exile consulted by the US State Department on how to organize the oil sector. Sources familiar with the process told International Oil Daily that the recruitment process is still ongoing, after several former oil ministry officials in exile turned down offers to return to Iraq and help the US administration run the sector.
(The Bush administration has been busy looking for specialists to serve on a board of Iraqis and Westerners to get the oil sector on its feet and resume exports as soon as possible. Though a number of names have been bandied about, the only confirmed members are former Shell Oil Chief Executive Philip Carroll and Iraqi exile Muhammad-Ali Zainy, who left the country more than 20 years ago and has since worked in the US and UK as an oil consultant.)
The civil administration arrangement outlined on Thursday should solve the immediate problems of thousands of state employees who suddenly found themselves with no employer after the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime. It does not, however, answer many questions about the degree to which Iraqis will be independent in making government decisions.
ORHA’s structure will involve several US and British coordinators, who are starting to move from temporary offices in Kuwait. These include coordinators for civil administration, humanitarian affairs, and reconstruction, as well as ones for the northern and southern regions.
The reconstruction coordinator will head the US mission once its embassy, which closed in 1990, reopens.
Garner also has a chief of staff, Jerry Bates, and two deputies, for policy and international affairs. The latter, British Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, said his job is to internationalize ORHA, adding “international players next week, to two international officers from Japan and Australia that are already in Iraq.”
ORHA also has a coordinator for each ministry, Garner said, “to coordinate with the Iraqis who are going to run the ministries.” Countering speculation that the US is recruiting foreigners to act as ministers, Cross said: “That is just not true. No one will run those ministries except the Iraqis themselves.”
Garner earlier this week seemed to discredit self-appointed governors in Iraq, especially Mohammad al-Zubaidi, who declared himself head of an executive council for the city of Baghdad and announced his council will include representatives of 22 ministerial committees. But on Thursday Garner accepted al-Zubaidi’s presence, and said it was up to Iraqis to turn against him if they chose to do so. At the same time, the US official presented the governmental process to be launched next week as a natural substitute for the efforts of the likes of al-Zubaidi.
“The [US-led] coalition doesn’t have a candidate. If the people of Baghdad are unhappy with [al-Zubaidi], all they have to do is come and tell us, and we’ll ask him to leave and will show him how to leave,” Garner said.
The governmental process presented by Garner essentially consists of a civil administration under his authority, but with implementation by Iraqis through existing ministries. The structure stopped short of acting as a proper government that could define policy and make decisions about the political future of Iraq, which would come at a later stage.
Speculation in Baghdad is either that the US is keeping silent on the political future until it establishes more credit in providing security and civil services, or that the framework for a political government is still being formed.
The role of the Iraqi opposition, promoted by the US ahead of the war, is also either unclear for now.
Garner said only that US never had “a locked-in-concrete plan,” and that it aimed rather to establish a “framework” whereby “the leadership of Iraq will come up with their own plan [as long as] it’s a democracy.” He said Iraqis would choose their type of government and legislation.
Asked if Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial head of the Iraqi National Congress who is a long-time favorite of the Pentagon, would play a role in government, Garner commented that, “Mr. Chalabi is a fine man, but he’s not my candidate and he’s not the candidate of the coalition.”
Garner’s international affairs deputy Cross appeared more flexible, stating: “Chalabi is a man who may have a part to play in the future of Iraq and he has every right to be part of the future of Iraq if he has the support of the people.”
By Ruba Husari, Baghdad
(Published in International Oil Daily April 25, 2003)