Looting threatens Britain's grip in Basra

By DONALD MacINTYRE

British forces in Basra were yesterday taking urgent steps to establish an interim civilian authority as they struggled to stop looting and disorder from spreading through the city.

Colonel Chris Vernon, British Forces spokesman in Kuwait, said British commanders had invited a local unnamed religious leader "with credibility and authority" to form a representative administrative committee for the Basra province.

Since the arrival of British forces, who swept into the city in a move which British military sources say has been mostly welcomed by local residents, there have been revenge attacks by civilians on local Ba'ath Party leaders and looting.

Colonel Ben Curry, spokesman for 3 Commando Brigade, said that while some local tribal and religious leaders had been identified as being willing to help form a provisional civilian administration, they were unlikely to do so until they were "categorically sure that the Saddam regime had gone".

The locals are wary because the United States failed to support the uprising it had called for after the Gulf War in 1991.

Vernon said that the key figure, whom he described as a "sheik," was a local figure and not an exile. The British military had been aware of him for some time and had judged in a two-hour meeting with him that he was capable of setting up a representative body.

He had indicated that he could draw on some members of the regime's ruling Ba'ath Party who were not implicated in the oppression of local people.

Meanwhile some angry residents have said that they were caught in a political vacuum with a lack of water and a total breakdown in law and order.

"We are caught between two enemies, Saddam and the British," said Osama Ijam, a 24-year-old medical student in the grounds of the rundown Basra General Hospital.

"Is this what they call a liberation? We want our own Government. We want our own security and our own law."

The hospital, like many Government buildings, stores, offices and the City's Sheraton Hotel has been looted in recent days.

British military sources say they will do their best to prevent revenge attacks, but they will not expose their troops to unreasonable risks in clashes between local residents and their former Ba'ath Party oppressors.

Some residents said the looters were from the shanty towns on the edge of the city, which were the main hideouts of fedayeen militias.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq war