IRAQ: 250 LEADING IRAQI'S ATTEND MEETING TO DISCUSS NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY TO REPLACE DICTATORSHIP OF SADDAM HUSSEIN

Record ID: 647098

  • Title: IRAQ: 250 LEADING IRAQI'S ATTEND MEETING TO DISCUSS NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY TO REPLACE DICTATORSHIP OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
  • Date: 28th April 2003
  • Summary: (U4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 28, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV U.S. SOLDIERS PATROLLING IN STREETS OF BAGHDAD 0.06 2. MV, EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WHICH IS VENUE FOR MEETING CONVENED BY UNITED STATES AND ATTENDED BY ABOUT 250 LEADING IRAQIS FROM ACROSS THE POLITICAL AND ETHNIC SPECTRUM 0.10 3. WIDE OF DELEGATES SEATED IN CONFERENCE 0.15 4. SMV DELEGATES LISTENING 0.19 5. WIDE OF DELEGATES 0.21 6. PAN TO SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAY GARNER, DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ, SAYING: "Today on the birthday of Saddam Hussein... let us start the democratic process for the children of Iraq" / APPLAUSE 0.35 7. SMV DELEGATE TAKING NOTES 0.41 8. WIDE OF MEETING, DELEGATES LISTENING 0.46 9. SMV DELEGATES 0.49 10. SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAY GARNER, DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ, SAYING (SPEAKING IN ENGLISH WITH ARABIC TRANSLATOR: "We have to have security... and we are trying to to put security throughout Iraq as we speak...And the question would be, '"where do we need security?" ......and how do we bring forth security that is accepted by the people?" 1.04 11. WIDE OF THE MEETING 1.05 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAY GARNER, DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ, SAYING (SPEAKING IN ENGLISH WITH ARABIC TRANSLATOR: and how do we bring forth security that is accepted by the people?" 1.09 13. WIDE OF CONFERENCE 1.12 (W5) 14. SMV DELEGATE ARRIVING LATE AND SITTING DOWN 1.17 15. SMV DELEGATES 1.19 16. SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE O'BRIAN, BRITISH JUNIOR FOREIGN SECRETARY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST, SAYING: "We want to leave here a broad-based government representing all the Iraqi people, Iraq must be run by and for the Iraqis and no one else." 1.28 17. SMV DELEGATE SITTING DOWN/ APPLAUSE 1.35 18. WIDE OF SHEIKH HUSSEIN SADR, DEAN OF ISLAMIC STUDIES IN LONDON, ADDRESSING DELEGATES 1.45 19. SCU DELEGATE 1.46 20. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SHEIKH HUSSEIN SADR, DEAN OF ISLAMIC STUDIES IN LONDON, SAYING: "A lot of trumpets (=loud voices) wanted to pollute peace in Iraq and wanted us to forget the unique role of the United States and of the United Kingdom in saving the people of Iraq from Saddam the dictator. Iraq can't be ruled except by Iraqis." 2.13 21. SMV OF DELEGATES APPLAUDING 2.15 22. WIDE OF CONFERENCE 2.20 23. SCU DELEGATES LISTENING (2 SHOTS) 2.29 24. WIDE OF CONFERENCE 2.33 25. EXTERIOR, U.S TROOPS PATROLLING STREETS 2.37 26. WIDE OF US. MILITARY VEHICLE ON PATROL 2.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAAF6NO612UPIZC1JCNSBHN27NP
  • Story Text: About 250 leading Iraqis from across the political and
    ethnic spectrum have held a meeting in Baghdad, convened by
    the United States, to try and work out how to replace Saddam
    Hussein's iron rule with some form of democracy.



    Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general administering
    postwar Iraq, pledged on Monday (April 28) to build democracy
    in the cradle of civilisation as he met prominent Iraqis for
    talks to map out their political future.

    Speaking on what would be Saddam Hussein's 66th birthday,
    Garner told about 250 people in the bombed-out heart of
    Baghdad they must build on a smaller, initial gathering in
    the city of Nassiriya two weeks ago, days after Saddam was
    toppled.

    "Today on the birthday of Saddam Hussein let us start the
    democratic process for the children of Iraq," he told invited
    delegates at the heavily guarded convention centre.

    Saddam's fate is unknown. His birthday was a public
    holiday.

    Garner appealed to Iraqis' sense of pride in the land of
    ancient Mesopotamia, where some of the world's earliest
    civilisations once flourished.

    All speakers agreed the priority was to improve security
    after rampant looting in the power vacuum left by Saddam's
    fall.

    "We have to have security... and we are trying to to put
    security throughout Iraq as we speak...And the question would
    be, '"where do we need security?" ......and how do we bring
    forth security that is accepted by the people?" Garner said,
    standing in front of a podium beneath a verse from the Koran
    encouraging leaders to consult the people.

    Garner, who heads the Office of Reconstruction and
    Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), hopes the process of forming
    an interim Iraqi government will start by the end of the week.

    British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, also
    attending the talks, said Iraqis should vote in a referendum
    on a new constitution before electing their own government to
    take over from a transitional postwar authority.

    "We want to leave here a broad-based government
    representing all the Iraqi people, Iraq must be run by and for
    the Iraqis and no one else," O'Brien told delegates.

    In the audience were clerics from both the Shi'ite
    majority and the traditionally dominant Sunni Muslims, as well
    as Kurds from the northern mountains, Arab tribal chiefs in
    robes and headdresses and urban professionals in Western-style
    suits.

    But Ahmad Chalabi, the Washington-backed head of the Iraqi
    National Congress, was not at the meeting although other INC
    representatives did attend.

    Representatives of the two main Kurdish political parties
    also did not come to the meeting, but U.S. officials said they
    were invited and probably only prevented by logistical
    problems.

    At the meeting returned exiles embraced. Most were flown in
    on U.S. military aircraft from Kuwait.

    Some Iraqi speakers thanked U.S.-led forces, but all
    insisted their country could be ruled only by Iraqis.

    "The Iraqi people owe a lot to the United States and the
    United Kingdom...for deposing the dictator," said Sheikh
    Hussein Sadr, dean of the Islamic Council in London. "Iraq
    cannot be ruled except by Iraqis," he added.

    U.S. tanks blocked the streets outside and American
    soldiers patrolled the halls and corridors of the conference
    centre.

    An important Shi'ite group -- the Iran-based Supreme
    Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) -- that
    boycotted the first meeting sent delegates to the Baghdad
    round of talks despite reservations about U.S. influence among
    its members.

    Shi'ites form a traditionally oppressed 60 percent
    majority in Iraq. U.S. officials have said they do not want
    Iraq to become an Islamic republic like neighbouring Shi'ite
    Iran.


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