Chaos in Baghdad as crowds besiege the job club

9.00pm - By KIM SENGUPTA

The reconstruction of Iraq officially began yesterday with a recruitment drive for public-service workers in Baghdad by American forces after four days of anarchy had followed their occupation of the city.

"Officers over here, and other police over there," shouted a senior officer as he tried to organise those who had heeded calls by US-led forces via radio.

But new habits die hard. As hundreds streamed into the meeting at the al-Wiyah Club in the city centre, set up to encourage civic responsibility, others looted offices in the building. United States marines standing guard just a few yards from the entrance refused to intervene despite repeated requests, saying it was not their responsibility.

To add to the confusion, an anti-American demonstration took place at the same time in front of the next-door Palestine Hotel, which had become a temporary base for the marines. Some of the protesters ended up in al-Wiyah by mistake, while civil servants hoping to get to the meeting vainly tried to get past the security at the hotel, thinking the venue had been changed.

The call to al-Wiyah, founded by the British in 1924 and whose membership was confined under the regime to senior Baath party officials, the military and business leaders, was made by an American officer on local radio. The result was the first traffic jam in Baghdad since the bombing started, with health, electricity and water department workers, as well as a small number of policemen, turning up.

Chaotic scenes ensued inside the club. The main auditorium became a scene of pushing and shoving, and recriminations and accusations about who had spied for the fallen regime in the past.

In the middle of this Hazan Elyas, an assistant steward at the club, discovered that a group had peeled off on a looting spree. He rushed off to alert the US Marines, only to be told that they could not help. He returned to find the doors smashed open in several offices and televisions, recorders and computers being stolen. The crowd had taken nets from the six tennis courts and a few were trying to remove parasols from the three swimming pools.

Two hours later, he was vainly trying to repair the shattered doors. "Look what they had done!" he said, waving his arm at the manager's office strewn with papers and upturned furniture.

"I tried to stop them and they started fighting me," said Mr Elyas. "One of them said, 'why do you care, is this your father's club?' But this is private property and I am employed by the club.

"I was astonished by the attitude of the American soldiers. I asked them to help several times, but they refused, saying they had no orders to intervene.

"They are claiming that they are trying to restore order in Baghdad, and then they refuse to do anything about these criminal acts."

After the meeting, an Iraqi official liaising with the Americans said police officers would gather today at the National Police Training College to be assigned their duties, doctors and nurses should return to hospitals and electrical workers should go to power stations. They should also monitor the radio for further information.

Major David Cooper of the US Marines added that civil affairs teams, responsible for public services, would be working with middle-level Iraqi staff involved in operating the services rather than higher-ranking directors. He stressed that only police from the criminal and traffic departments would be involved, not from the old regime's security branch.

But things may not go so smoothly. Abbas Ali Hamdan, a police captain, complained: "I was abused, and called all sorts of names. One man said he would slap me on the face if he saw me in my uniform and another said he would kick me. What kind of behaviour is that?"

Safah abu-Niaz, a technician at Yamoukh Hospital, said: "It is all very well for the Americans to say we should turn up for work. But they did nothing when the hospitals got looted, and there is no sign of them in the streets. I think it will be very risky for us to travel, especially after nightfall in this situation."

His companion, Karim al-Jabbar, was concerned that no efforts had been made to keep out members of the Baath party. "Does this mean they will simply be allowed to carry on?" he asked.

However, Nazir Nasir, a biomedical engineer, said he was carrying a list of health workers who had signed up to return to work. In his neighbourhood residents had organised patrols in co-operation with the local mosque to prevent looting, and the same system could be used against anyone who intimidated workers who wanted to carry on with their jobs.

Meanwhile, 32 US Army engineers landed at Baghdad international airport to help restore electricity. Some 15,000 troops are expected to arrive in the next three weeks to help with policing the Iraqi capital.

Lieutenant-General David McKiernan, who heads the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, will set up a command post at the airport, which contains more than a hundred buildings. An airport jail cell has become a holding area for prisoners. A US forces spokesman denied that there were plans to move any of them to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where prisoners from Afghanistan are being held.

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