New Iraqi government needs to assert its authority

8.25am - By PATRICK COCKBURN

BAGHDAD - The United States transferred sovereignty back to an Iraqi interim government two days earlier than expected yesterday in a surprise move aimed at preventing the so-called handover of power being spoiled by guerrilla attacks.

The ceremony was a swift and furtive affair inside the 'Green Zone' in central Baghdad, heavily guarded by American troops.

It was from there that Paul Bremer, the US viceroy in Iraq, ruled the country for over a year.

As soon as he had given up his post, a sombre but relieved-looking Mr Bremer flew out of the country.

He leaves behind a land wracked by war and violence.

The cloak-and-dagger secrecy surrounding the transfer of sovereignty underlines the degree to which US rule is being challenged in Iraq.

The US originally planned to continue the occupation for another year.

The handover ceremony yesterday morning was first billed as a simple press briefing by Mr Bremer.

Then journalists were suddenly escorted to the office of Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister.

There Mr Bremer, the interim President, Shaikh Ghazi al-Yawer, and other dignitaries were waiting.

"This is a historic day ... a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," said Shaikh Ghazi.

Outside the Green Zone, Baghdad was unnaturally quiet.

There were far fewer cars in the streets because people were only making essential journeys.

Many better-off Iraqis have already departed for Amman or Damascus, expecting this to be a peculiarly violent week.

Iraqis in general welcome the formal end of the US occupation but wonder how much power is really being transferred to Iraqis. The US will continue to keep 138,000 troops in the country.

Salahudin Mohammed, 33, an engineer said: "I am very optimistic. I hope the new government will make the Americans leave the hearts of the cities."

Mr Allawi is trying to ride a wave of anger against suicide bombers and insurgents who kill Iraqi policemen. He urged people not to be afraid of 'outlaws'.

As his ministers were sworn in later he said: "I warn the forces of terror once again. We will not forget who stood with us and against us in this crisis."

The problem for Mr Allawi is that Iraqis want him to get rid of both the suicide bombers and the US occupation.

If they feel that he and Shaikh Ghazi are simply the Iraqi face of continuing American occupation then the new interim government could be discredited just as quickly as the old Iraqi Governing Council.

In theory, the new government will hold power for only seven months. Under a UN Security Council resolution there must be elections no later than January 31, 2005.

But in the days before he departed, Mr Bremer instituted a special commission that will vet candidates running for office with the power to ban those maintaining a militia.

Since all parties, covertly or openly, maintain militias this would enable the commission to decide who will take part in an election.

How far the new Iraqi government will be from full control over the country was underlined on Saturday when Mr Bremer signed an edict giving US and Western contractors immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law while they are carrying out work in Iraq.

The contractors are extremely unpopular among Iraqis who consider them grossly overpaid.

Vital infrastructural repairs on power stations and the oil industry have not been completed or even begun.

The success or failure of the new government will largely depend on how far the US will really end the occupation.

One critic said: "Over the last year we have seen the US try to impose old style nineteenth century imperial control over Iraq. It failed disastrously. Now they will try to impose a Latin American style government with powerful security forces controlled by the US of the kind that used to be common in 1960s."

The government is meant to be an interim authority. It cannot make long-term policy decisions.

It could ask the US troops to leave but will not do so because it depends on them.

But, as with the unpopular Iraqi Governing Council, to which its top members previously belonged, the new government is likely to put down roots and will be difficult to displace.

The US embassy and the Iraqi Reconstruction and Management Office, with over 900 members, will replace the Coalition Provisional Authority but it will continue to occupy Saddam Hussein's old Republican Palace.

Many officials will simply change their nametags.

John Negroponte, the new US ambassador to Iraq, will occupy a separate building but most of his staff will be in the Republican Palace, which Iraqis are demanding back as a symbol of their sovereignty.

Shaikh Ghazi asked President George W Bush for the palace and was promised that it would be returned in two months.

The secretive ceremony transferring power yesterday closely followed by Mr Bremer's inglorious dash to the airport underlines the weakening of the US position in Iraq in the last year.

Despite having a powerful army in the country, the US became politically weak.

In April it unintentionally provoked confrontations with the Sunni Arab community (20 per cent of the population) over the siege of Fallujah.

At the same time it confronted the Shiah (60 per cent of the population) in its ill-judged pursuit of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqis in Baghdad yesterday had an acute sense as to why the US was pulling back.

Mr Mohammed, the engineer, said: "I think the main reason for the transfer of power is the military situation of the US army in Iraq and the Bush re-election campaign."

Ali Hashem Abdullah believed that the transfer was good but "Negroponte will be the brain of everything and our government just advisers to him."

At the end of the day the resistance will not stop while there is an American army in Iraq.

The new government will not have the strength to crush them.

The White House is desperate to get the war off television screens and the front pages of the newspapers.

But the guerrillas are too well rooted to be destroyed and want Mr Bush to lose the election.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq