France Presse: prime manifesatzioni anti USA in irak

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

BAGHDAD (AFP) Iraqi volunteers helped restore order in ransacked Baghdad,
while G-7 countries meeting in Washington welcomed UN Security Council
guidance on rebuilding Iraq.
Seven of the world's richest nations, deeply divided over the occupation,
handed a central role to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and
United Nations, without offering specifics.
In Baghdad, the first police cruiser ventured onto the streets since the
US-led occupation on Saturday, after a US appeal for volunteers to help
restore order, as well as electricity and water to the capital after three
weeks of bombing, war and looting.
By nightfall of day 24 of the war, US, British and Australian troops, with
the help of Kurdish fighters, controlled all major cities, except President
Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
Kurdish fighters began withdrawing from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, leaving
it in US hands. The move came as a relief to Turkey, which said it now saw
no immediate reason to send troops to the region.
In the main northern city of Mosul, the looting which followed its capture
by US-backed Kurdish fighters died down, the Arabic news television
Al-Jazeera reported.
However, up to 20 people had been killed in fighting between Arabs and
Kurds, said hospital sources in Mosul.
Chaos still reigned in the capital, four days after it was taken by US-led
forces. Most shops were shuttered. Armed shop owners stood guard outside to
ward off looters who have stripped government buildings, hotels and even
hospitals of vital supplies and equipment.
Jeweler Safar Hussein Hazem said chaos "isn't freedom."
Residents called on US forces to crack down on the looters and warned that
Iraqis could turn against the soldiers if they do not.
"If the Americans don't do anything in the coming weeks, we'll drive them
out," Hassan Fahed said.
"Iraq is an ancient civilization; the United States is nothing."
Dozens of Iraqis reported to the Palestine Hotel where US officers and media
are housed, in response to a US call for qualified people to come forward.
A group of police officers came forward.
"It was time to get back to work," Captain Mohammad Abdul Karim al-Asaidi
said. "We're working for the people, not for a government."
US forces secured the city's main water supply station against looters, a
spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Geneva.
Antonella Notari also said the capital's Medical City hospital complex was
partly under the control of US soldiers.
"These are very concrete, very useful measures, but the entire
infrastructure serving the civilian population also has to be secured," she
said.
The capital has been without water and electricity for days.
At Baghdad's Rashid psychiatric hospital, ransacked by violent mobs on
Wednesday, two patients died of thirst as they were unable to swallow water
without assistance, staffers said.
Around three-quarters of the 1,100 patients left the hospital.
"We tried to defend ourselves, but in vain. They were too strong," nurse
Imad Taha Abbas, told AFP.
Facing criticism for the growing lawlessness, the United States said it
would send nearly 1,200 security advisors and judicial experts to Iraq in
the coming weeks.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that US troops had an
obligation to help provide security but angrily insisted that the extent of
the chaos had been exaggerated in media reports.
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said Saturday that there was no curfew in
Iraq, but did not rule it out.
"Whether one is imposed or not is a tactical decision," that could vary from
city to city, Brooks told reporters at Central Command in Qatar.
In Kirkuk, US troops were deployed outside the governor's office, in a sign
they were steadily taking over control of the city from Kurdish forces.
Rostam, a top commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said the city
was quieter after it too was looted following its fall to his fighters on
Thursday.
"The situation is under control," he said, adding that US forces in the city
were "more than sufficient" to assure its security.
Turkey has insisted that Kurdish fighters quit Kirkuk and Mosul, fearful
that allowing the oil wealth to slip into their hands could finance an
independent Kurdish state and fuel separatist ambitions of Turkey's own
Kurds.
But there was "no need for the Turkish army to enter northern Iraq," Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul said, while warning Turkey was ready to intervene if
necessary.
US forces moved north from Baghdad to Tikrit, fearing that Saddam, if still
alive, could rally a final stand in his hometown.
Saddam's top weapons advisor surrendered to US troops in Baghdad saying he
was happy to be questioned because the ousted regime had none of the banned
weapons the United States used as a justification for the war.
"I tell you for history: We have nothing," General Amer al-Saadi told German
ZDF public television.
The United States, Britain and Italy, who supported the war, squared off
with France, Germany and Japan, who did not, over Iraq.
"We recognize the need for a multilateral effort to help Iraq," according to
a G7 communique. "We support a further UN Security Council resolution."
"The IMF and World Bank should play their normal role in rebuilding and
developing Iraq, recognizing that the Iraqi people have the ultimate
responsibility to implement the right policies and build their own future."
However, the statement offered few specifics on the UN resolution or any
details on the postwar administration of Iraq.
The statement also acknowledged the importance of a cooperative effort
dealing with Iraq's massive debt, saying the Paris Club of creditor nations
should review this.
IMF policymakers seconded the UN role in a separate statement.