With Nov. 15 Agreement, Iraqis Can See Timetable for New Iraq

 

Monday  December 15, 2003

Bremer says agreement outlines strategic goals shared with CPA

By establishing a timetable for drafting a new constitution, holding national elections and transferring sovereignty over Iraq to the Iraqi people, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Administrator Ambassador Paul Bremer said the November 15 agreement between the CPA and the Iraqi Governing Council defines "the strategic goals that we share with Iraqis."

"The Iraqi people need a sense of where this is all leading, and when occupation ends. They need to know that occupation ends not later than June 30. They need to know that they will have a constitution not later than after March next year, and that they will have an elected government not later than December 2005," said Bremer, speaking at a press roundtable in Bahrain December 13.

Bremer said the November 15 agreement also contains language that will help to reassure all Iraqis that their rights will be protected and their interests are being looked after.

"[Y]ou will see that we have included some very important principles, the principle of respect for individual rights irrespective of ethnicity, sectarian background, and gender," he said.

The CPA administrator made his remarks before news arrived of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's capture by coalition forces. Bremer told his audience in Bahrain that the former leader had "touched virtually everybody [in Iraq] in a bad way."

"I have met thousands of Iraqis in the last six months and I have not yet met one Iraqi who didn't have a story about a member of his or her family being tortured or killed or exiled by Saddam," he said.

Bremer announced that more than 17,000 individual reconstruction projects, ranging from an airport to schools and orphanages had been conducted since June 2003. He said that with the inclusion of the recently approved $87.5 billion U.S. aid package, the United States is spending more money on Iraq than on any other single country in its history.

When asked about the exclusion of some countries from bidding on reconstruction contracts, Bremer said he had "a hard time understanding the argument that countries, which did not help with the liberation, should some how be benefited by American taxpayers' money."

He told his audience that the exclusion only affects the prime contracts, for which there are sixty-three countries eligible to bid. "[T]he subcontracts can go to anybody," said Bremer.

Following is a transcript of Bremer's remarks in Bahrain:

(begin transcript)

Ambassador Paul Bremer
Press Round Table at the Sheraton Hotel
Manama, Bahrain
December 13, 2003

Ambassador Bremer: Before I answer your questions, let me say a few words about what we are trying to accomplish in Iraq. I think the President's vision for Iraq is one that is shared by the vast majority of Iraqis; and it is an Iraq which is stable, an Iraq which is at peace with itself and its neighbors, and an Iraq which is governed by a representative government, democratically elected. We find in talking to Iraqis around the country, Arabs and Kurds, Shias and Christians, Turkmen, and others, a very broad agreement that this is the end product that we all want in Iraq. And I would argue that we all have a plan of action, which would get us to that vision over the next couple of years by concentrating on three things - security, economic progress, and political transformation.

Security of course is our number one concern. It is the number one priority and the number one concern of most Iraqis. We have three problems in security. First, we have attacks by the killers of the Saddam regime, various intelligence groups, and some of the senior Baath party members. They are responsible for about 90 percent of the attacks against coalition forces. Secondly, we have international terrorists, such as Al Qaeda and Ansar al Islam. They are trained terrorists and they are a serious danger to the Iraqi people. And thirdly, there is crime, and this is of most concern to the Iraqi people. Saddam opened up his prisons and released almost one hundred thousand prisoners, and these are convicted murderers, rapists, and burglars, who are at large. We have captured a number of them and we are capturing more, and it is beginning to get better. For example, violent crime in Baghdad has dropped 39 percent in the last sixty days, so we are beginning to see progress in fighting crime. But security remains everybody's primary concern, and our approach to fixing security relies very heavily on helping the Iraqis be more and more involved in the fight against security problems. We have begun to train a professional army, a professional police force, and a civil defense force, and I can go into the details. But the point is to get the Iraqis more and more responsible for their country in the area of security.

On the economy, we have begun a very aggressive approach to reconstruction in Iraq. In spite of the security problems, we have conducted more than 17,000 individual reconstruction projects in the past six months. These are projects that range from very large projects, such as an airport, to reconstructing more than 2000 schools, putting generators into hospitals, cleaning up playgrounds, building orphanages and sports centers, very small, precise projects virtually in every province in the country. We will continue this reconstruction as we go forward over the next couple of years. You are familiar with the amount of money that the U.S. is planning to spend in Iraq. It is more money than the U.S. has ever spent in one country in our history. It is a very strong indication of the commitment of the President and the American people to provide Iraq with a stable economic base for its people.

We are also dedicated to moving forward on the political renaissance of Iraq. We have a program in place that will give Iraq a democratically elected government within two years. You are familiar probably with the terms of the agreement we signed on November 15th. We are in the process now of implementing that agreement, and it provides a future of hope for the Iraqi people where they will for the first time write their own constitution and then hold elections on the basis of a permanent constitution within two years. In our discussions with Iraqis, we find very broad support for this program of political transformation over the next couple of years. There are debates about the details of this agreement, but everybody takes the Nov 15th agreement now as defining the strategic goals that we share with Iraqis. That is really our overall approach and I can go over the details, but in the areas of security, economy, and political development, the one overriding theme is turning Iraq over to the Iraqi people as soon as it can be done so they can run their own country, and they can be responsible. I believe that an Iraq which meets this vision is very much in the interest in the countries of the region because it can be an Iraq which is no longer threatening to its neighbors, an Iraq which is stable and therefore not causing instability in the region, and an Iraq which can serve in some respects as a model for how countries in this region can develop themselves economically. And with that, I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Q: Do you have any comment about the U.N. meeting scheduled for December 15th where there is supposed to be a discussion of a timetable for the U.S. to pull out, and the new Iraqi constitution?

Ambassador Bremer: The Iraqi Governing Council was required by the terms of Resolution 1511 to inform the United Nations by the fifteenth of December about its timetable and process. They have done that, the President of the Council sent a letter three weeks ago. So they have already met their obligations, and there will be a discussion on either the fifteenth or sixteenth about the timetable. I don't think that the UN action at this moment is the most important thing. The most important thing is what is happening inside Iraq. We believe it is very important for all elements of Iraqi society to feel that their interests are being looked after by the November 15 agreement. It is very important for the Iraqi people to understand the fundamental premise of democracy, which is the protection of everybody's rights. If you read the November 15 agreement, you will see that we have included some very important principles, the principle of respect for individual rights irrespective of ethnicity, sectarian background, and gender. That's very important. You will see the importance of the respect for minority rights, and one of the areas we are working on now is an information campaign to reassure those groups who are not in a majority that their rights will be respected under the constitution. In particular, of course, the Sunnis. That is a major element of our strategy.

Q: What are your thoughts about Sistani's position?

Ambassador Bremer: I have profound respect for the Grand Ayatollah. I believe that his vision for Iraq is very similar to the vision that the Coalition has for Iraq, a democratic Iraq whose government is brought forward by elections. In fact, the November 15 agreement provides that we will elect a constituent assembly as he has long urged, and that constituent assembly will write the permanent constitution. That is an element of the November 15 agreement that specifically addresses the questions that he raised last summer in his fatwa. As I said earlier, the November 15 agreement provides a way forward. There are a lot of clarifications that are possible about the details, and I expect they will sort those out.

Q: Is there any truth to a rumor that you promised Bahraini citizenship and oil concessions to members of Iraqi tribes if they would support U.S. goals in Iraq?

Ambassador Neumann: Those rumors are not true, and the Embassy has issued a statement denying the story.

Ambassador Bremer: I'd like to make a point about oil. The Governing Council has appointed an exceptionally capable group of ministers. They are running the government. We are not running the government. Out of the 25 ministers, seventeen of them have either doctoral or medical degrees. It is the best educated, most competent cabinet in Iraqi history, and they are running their ministries, they are in charge of their budgets, policies, and personnel. Oil policy is in the hands of a Minister who is a petroleum engineer and an extremely able man. He is in charge of oil policy, not us.

Q: Where was he before?

Ambassador Bremer: He was living in exile.

Q: So did most of the Ministers come from outside Iraq?

Ambassador Bremer: No, of the 25, I think about thirteen came from outside Iraq and twelve from inside, or similar numbers.

Q: What are the U.S. guarantees to Iraq if Bush is not reelected?

Ambassador Bremer: We have had more than 160 American Congressmen and Senators visit Baghdad, from both parties, since liberation. The impression I get from talking to these Congressional representatives is that whether or not they supported the war, that Americans now are committed to success in Iraq. I think people should not be too concerned about the American electoral cycle. I know the President has said very directly and very often that he is going to do what is right for Iraq and that he is not going to get distracted by other matters. So I think the commitment of the American people and the fact that we are going to spend almost nineteen billion dollars there in the next four or five years speaks to that matter. We have 130,000 men and women there in service, and these are very clear indications of our commitment to succeed in Iraq, and I don't think that is going to change.

Q: Why is it taking so long to write the Constitution in Iraq?

Ambassador Bremer: They haven't started yet.

Q: Yes, I know, but according to the plan it is going to take six months.

Ambassador Bremer: You must mean the permanent constitution next year. Iraq is a complicated country, and it has never had its own constitution. The first constitution in Iraq was written by the British in 1922, and following that, they had several constitutions imposed on them, all of them interim constitutions pulled together by the Baathists. So Iraqis are going to have to sit down and work through some very difficult issues. It might not take them six months, maybe they can do it in three months. It will be a sovereign Iraqi government writing that constitution and they will have to make up their own minds, but there are issues that they are going to have to resolve and I don't know how long it will take.

Q: Do you think they can do this with the internal problems? It might be too complicated for six months.

Ambassador Bremer: First you asked me why the constitution would take so long and now you are saying they might not finish within six months.

Q: What I mean is why six months exactly on the timetable, why not seven?

Ambassador Bremer: They felt and we agreed that in setting out the timetable for return to sovereignty, which is the first step in June, and for a fully elected democratic government, it was important to have milestones written down. The Iraqi people need a sense of where this is all leading, and when occupation ends. They need to know that occupation ends not later than June 30. They need to know that they will have a constitution not later than after March next year, and that they will have an elected government not later than December 2005. So we all felt it was important that there be milestones. It gives a perspective to the average Iraqi that he or she can see the process, and it has worked because people now understand that there is a process. It may end up taking less than six months for the Constitution drafting process to be completed.

Q: Do you trust some of the former Baath members who are now involved with the Coalition? Sometimes I doubt that these people are really going to help.

Ambassador Bremer: The problem of dealing with the Baathists is an extremely emotional and sensitive one for Iraqis. They suffered under one of the most brutal dictatorships in the 20th century, and every day that goes by we find out more about what Saddam did. I have met thousands of Iraqis in the last six months and I have not yet met one Iraqi who didn't have a story about a member of his or her family being tortured or killed or exiled by Saddam. He touched virtually everybody in a bad way. So it is a very emotional issue. The Iraqis have established, at my request, a debaathification council to look at the question of what we do about the Baathists. They have assured us that they do not want to turn this into a mechanism for revenge and I have encouraged them to look at reconciliation. They must find a way to reconcile, as other countries that have been through difficult times, such as South Africa, Rwanda, and the Czech Republic. They need to find a reconciliation process and we have encouraged them to start that. But in the end, because of the deep emotional and historical aspects, it is a process that the Iraqis have to control themselves. They have to be satisfied with it. We can't impose it. It is another example of an area where our strategic thrust now is to try to give Iraqis responsibility and authority for their own country. They should be responsible for this.

Q: Are they ready to resume responsibility for this?

Ambassador Bremer: In some areas they are. We are going to engage in a very broad political dialogue across the entire country, about the future of Iraq. We are going to encourage women's groups, human right organizations, new NGOs, bar associations, chambers of commerce, to hold meetings and debate the future of Iraq. This will give them something they have never had, which a chance to really think about their future. We hope out of that we will get a process where they have a transitional legislature that is ready to assume sovereignty. In the economy, they are certainly ready. The problem there is structural. We have an economy that is highly centralized, even more so than most of the countries in the communist world were, and there are very few instruments to develop a private sector and they are going to have to work hard. And, this is an area, by the way, where I think Bahrain can play a useful role. I mentioned to the Minister of Finance last night that one of the key problems in economic reconstruction is the lack of credit in the economy. There is no effective banking system in Iraq. We have a bid out now to welcome foreign banks into Iraq so that they can start providing credit. We have several emergency mini-loan programs and micro-loan programs going to put money into peoples' hands so that they can start small businesses. We have a very effective one in Najaf and Karbala, which has been focused on women to try to get money into the hands of women so that they can start projects. For example, I met a woman who we gave two hundred and fifty dollars to in order to set up a sewing business at home. Now she can stay at home to look after her children, which is her cultural tradition, but run a business. Bahrain is known in the area as having effective financial services and banking where I think we can use some initial help.

Q: How would Bahrain help?

Ambassador Bremer: By training Iraqis in modern banking techniques. They need it because the two state-owned banks in Iraq were not really banks. They were arms of the political bureaucracy. They made loans on the basis of bureaucratic and political criteria, not on the basis of commercial criteria. So, they need help on how to make a loan and assess a business plan.

Q: Bahrain had a bad experience when bidding on telecommunications opportunities in Iraq.

Ambassador Bremer: I don't know about that specific case, but let me say that the mobile telephone licenses were conducted according to international bid completely transparently. We had seventy-five companies bidding on the three licenses. There was an international selection committee that made the final selections at the last candidate companies and the Minister of Telecommunications made that decisions and awarded the licenses. Again, although I do not know about the particular case of the Bahrain company, but the process was conducted in a transparent way. The Minister is probably going to sign the licenses in next couple of days. Can I say another thing that does relate to this? We are very mindful of the need to avoid corruption and I have told the Governing Council that I intend to establish an office of public integrity in Iraq in the next month, which will be a new thing in Iraq. I do not know if they exist elsewhere. This is going to be an office which will be entirely independent of the government. It will report to the chief executive. In the next six months it will report to me but after that to the chief executive and it will have authority to investigate.

Q: Who will be the "chief executive" of Iraq, will it be the Prime Minister or...

Ambassador Bremer: That will be whatever they decide. Some of them are talking about having both the Prime Minister and the President like the German model. But in any case, it will be an office that reports directly to chief executive, independent, with authority to investigate corruption and bring to court cases from across the country. We will establish it with a five-year budget that cannot be changed by the subsequent government and we will give a five-year appointment to the first head of this office so that he or she stays in office for the next five years. We think fighting corruption is very important. I am sorry I interrupted you.

Q: You were talking about training Iraqi personnel. Some of the Iraqi army recruits were trained but then they ran way, were pulled out or something like that. Is there some sort of a problem with building bridges of confident?

Ambassador Bremer: Well, first of all, we have about a hundred and thirty thousand Iraqis who are serving in the security forces now. One hundred and thirty thousand in the police, the army, the defense force, the border police, some of these are the protection services which is a new office the provides people to protect fixed installations. And it is not surprising to have some turnover among some of them. The problem in the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army is related to problems of pay and we are examining the pay issues. One of the difficulties is that the pay scale for the people in the security services has been fixed or connected to the pay scale in the civil service, and I have said to my advisors that I believe we need to re-examine that hypothesis. The people who are in the security service are putting their lives at risk and we need to find a way to adjust the compensation to take that into account. And, in fact I will be meeting tonight with my advisors on the question of security service pay.

Q: With regard to the decision of the U.S. Administration to deprive Germany, France, and Canada from bidding on contracts in Iraq. Isn't this against WTO and other international obligations?

Ambassador Bremer: No, it is not. First of all, it is completely consistent with our international obligations and it seems to me perfectly understandable. We have been very clear starting before the war that countries which were willing to help with the liberation of Iraq and with its reconstruction should expect that they would be involved in the reconstruction contracts. We have been consistent on this issue for almost a year.

Q: Was it your decision or the Pentagon's decision?

Ambassador Bremer: It was a decision of the Government of the United States.

Ambassador Neumann: Just to clarify. The decision about contracts was made about projects that that would be funded by American taxpayers.

Bremer: Yes, first it is consistent with our international obligations. Second, we have been clear about this all along. And third, it affects only the funds that the American taxpayers are spending. These other countries, such as Germany and France, are welcome to fund whatever projects they would like. But they have made no pledges for reconstruction so far. Finally, this affects only the prime contracts and not the subcontracts. Prime contracts will go to the sixty-three countries that helped us, including Bahrain, and the subcontracts can go to anybody. I have a hard time understanding the argument that countries, which did not help with the liberation, should some how be benefited by American taxpayers money.

Q: This issue has not been explained well in the press. You need better public relations campaign on this issue.

Q: What about contracts that were signed before the war with Germany and France?

Ambassador Bremer: I guess you are talking about the oil for food contracts. There were about seven thousand contracts that had to be reviewed in accordance with UN Resolution 1483. The Iraqi ministries each went through their lists of contracts and decided which contracts they still wanted and which ones they didn't want anymore because many of these contracts were done for purely political reasons and the ministries did not really want the items that were in the contracts. We prioritized that list and sent the list of contracts back to the United Nations, the contracts that the Iraqi Government wanted to continue. Some of these contracts are being filled now, but I don't know where all of these contracts have originated. I know that some are from Germany and Russia. Some of them were not renewed and will not be renewed because the ministries, now that they are free, have the chance to look at it from an administrative point of view rather than from a revolutionary council. This is a decision each Iraqi ministry has made. They are going through, as I said, seven thousand contracts.

Q: Are any of these contracts for hospitals or schools?

A: Generally speaking the ones that were not renewed were almost certainly corrupt contracts that were written to benefit either a member of the government or to break sanctions. I trust the Minister of Health to agree to a hospital or pharmaceuticals if this is what they need.

Q: Do you use your influence on the Kuwaitis? What they are demanding from the Iraqis as reparations, the Iraqis cannot pay.

Ambassador Bremer: The Iraqis are in discussions with the Kuwaitis about this matter and I hope they will find a mutually acceptable solution of some kind. Iraq's debt is about $125 billion and if you assume that it has a six percent interest rate, the debt servicing is almost $8 billion dollars a year. Our budget for 2004 is only $13 billion dollars for the whole country. We have to run the entire government on thirteen billion dollars. So, it is quite obvious that Iraq simply cannot pay this debt and will not be able to pay even the debt servicing let alone the principle debt. As you know, President Bush has named former Secretary Jim Baker to be a special envoy on the debt issue. He'll begin his discussions in Europe next week to try to get a very substantial reduction of the debt. That does not address reparations, which is a matter between the Iraqis and the Kuwaitis.

Q: On the issue of Kuwait and Iraq, the Kuwaitis always feel insecure and that insecurity seems to prevail in regional politics. They cannot feel secure in their home, and they still distrust the Iraqis even though the government is now American-lead.

Ambassador Bremer: The Iraqi Government is Iraqi-lead. It's not American led.

Q: Well then it is under an American umbrella.

Ambassador Bremer: Under the coalition umbrella. I have citizens from seventeen countries serving on my staff. It's not solely American. Look, the Iraqi-Kuwaiti relationship is very complicated.

Q: OK. You have to be politically correct and I have to be journalistically correct. Now, if Iraq becomes a member of the GCC, these are complex issues.

Ambassador Bremer: Yes, it is an emotional issue on both sides, and there is also distrust on the Iraqi side. When the Governing Council announced the establishment of their special tribunal on Wednesday, it was explained that the tribunal would also look into crimes against Kuwaitis. So, they have set up their tribunal in a way to reassure the Kuwaitis that, as they move towards a system of justice, they are also going to look into Kuwaiti issues. We are in very intense discussions with the Kuwait government now over ways to increase economic ties between the two countries and in particular ways which Kuwait can help us with fuel and energy. The Iraqi Minister of Electricity is in Kuwait today to have discussions with the Kuwaitis ways to cooperate on power. So there are already ongoing discussions between the Iraqis and the Kuwaitis that I think will help over time deal with some of the emotional issues. I admit they are emotional.

Q: (inaudible)

Ambassador Bremer: I think all Iraqis are dedicated to the unity of Iraq. A unified Iraq will have a federal structure of some kind and that's going to have to be defined. If it takes them six months to write the constitution it's because they have to define federalism. I don't think anyone is in favor of dividing Iraq into separate parts because there is a risk that it would come apart. We will see what comes out in the constitution. We believe it is important for Iraq's neighbors not to interfere, including Iran, and we think that if Iran thinks clearly about its own interests, it is not in Iran's interest for Iraq to be destabilized. It is after all a rather large neighbor and if Iraq is destabilized, that is not going to be in Iran's interest. I think the same argument can be made for the other neighbors. They have four other neighbors, all of whom if they think clearly about it should understand it is important for Iraq to be stable, as I said earlier: stable, democratic and peaceful with its neighbors. Let's see how it develops, the constitution itself of course will not keep other countries out. What will keep other countries out is an Iraq which is able to defend itself. One of the key elements in our program involves an ability for Iraq to keep neighbors from interfering in its internal affairs.

Q: What is the biggest threat to Iraq?

Ambassador Bremer: I think that the biggest threat is the security threat posed by the former regime and elements of Baath terrorists. The problem is we have to be able to restore security and we will. Thank you all. I'm sorry we didn't have more time. Come see us in Baghdad.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

HOME

Copyright 2014  Q Madp  www.OurWarHeroes.org