Posted on 05/23/2003 5:45:01 AM PDT by blam
May 23 2003 at 11:57AM
American 'Iraqi leader' axes public workers
By Nadim Ladki
Baghdad - The United States administrator in Iraq acted swiftly on America's overwhelming victory at the United Nations over its plans to rebuild the oil-rich country, dissolving several key Baathist ministries and bodies on Friday.
Only hours after the Security Council voted to end 13-year-old crippling sanctions, Washington's man in charge of Iraq, Paul Bremer, sacked hundreds of thousands of public employees and soldiers by abolishing the defence and information ministries and military and security courts.
The Bush administration, which is struggling to bring order to Iraq and kick-start its devastated economy, scored a major victory at the Security Council on Thursday by winning over anti-war states France, Russia and Germany.
'The Saddam regime is gone, and will never return' The new resolution, to be reviewed in 12 months, allows the US and Britain to use Iraq's abundant oil resources to finance its reconstruction.
Washington made last-minute concessions opening the door to an independent, albeit limited, UN role and the possibility of UN weapons inspectors returning to post-invasion Iraq.
Without UN action to lift the sanctions, the United States would have been in a legal no man's land, with many firms unwilling to engage in trade with Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves. About 8,3 million barrels of Iraqi oil stored at the Turkish port of Ceyhan can now be exported.
Bremer's decision to disband the Iraqi armed forces and several security bodies that had formed the backbone of Saddam Hussein's iron rule will affect more than 400 000 soldiers and public employees.
"These actions are part of a robust campaign to show the Iraqi people that the Saddam regime is gone, and will never return," the US-led administration said in a statement.
'God willing, things will be better now' The order disbands the elite Republican Guards and the regular army, suspends conscription, turns property of the dissolved entities over to the US-led administration and dismisses all employees of the dissolved entities.
The Iraqi army has in practice already been disbanded by the US-led war that toppled Saddam last month. The US administration has also banned the ruling Baath Party and vowed to prevent the party's top officials from holding public office.
The administration said it planned to build a new Iraqi army from scratch.
The UN's decision to lift sanctions by a vote of 14-0 was greeted with relief and joy in Iraq. The crackle of AK-47 fire echoed over the rooftops in Iraq's second city of Basra and tracer bullets shot into the sky as the news broke from the UN overnight.
"The sanctions are over," said one Iraqi youth, standing with a Kalashnikov on a street corner. "God willing, things will be better now."
The sanctions were imposed shortly after Saddam's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Critics said they had little effect on the lifestyle of Iraq's leaders while impoverishing average Iraqis.
The new resolution transfers legal control over Iraq's oil immediately from the UN to the US and Britain. Oil revenues will go into a new Iraqi Development Fund for rebuilding the country, controlled by the two countries and overseen by an international board.
The resolution exempts Iraq's oil revenues from claims by foreign creditors until an internationally recognised Iraqi government is established
Now we can get American technology in there to fix it.
10-4. My guess is the work will proceed rapidly and Iraqi oil will come on line faster than many predicted. I expect oil prices will drop significantly and OPEC better be cooperative in keeping their production up. Should be most interesting.
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