A rchive Date
[ 26-05-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Kurdistan ]
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[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/1923319
U.S. to allow Kurds to keep heavy arms
But Shiite, other militias forced to disarm
By PATRICK E. TYLER
New York Times
May 24, 2003, 12:37AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, apparently preserving the pre-war distinction between Kurdish-controlled northern areas and the rest of the country, will allow Kurdish fighters to keep their assault rifles and heavy weapons, but require Shiite Muslim and other militias to surrender theirs, according to a draft directive.
The plan has engendered intense criticism by Shiite leaders involved in negotiations with U.S. and British officials who have met privately with the heavily armed political groups that have moved into the power vacuum here.
"Maybe we didn't fight with the coalition, but we didn't fight against them," said Adel Abdul-Mahdi, an official of the largest Shiite group headed by Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, who arrived from exile in Iran earlier this month. "We want conditions where all militias are dissolved and we will not accept that other militias will be allowed to stay there with their weapons while we will not be there with ours."
Under the draft order, obtained by the New York Times, "militias that assisted coalition forces who remain under the supervision of coalition forces" will be authorized "to possess automatic or heavy weapons."
In a press conference Friday, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of land forces in Iraq, said that under the directive there "will be no militias inside of Iraq," but added that the Kurdish peshmerga forces "are a different story."
"The peshmergas fought with coalition forces and we look to leave them with some of their forces north of the green line." He was referring to the line that once divided the Kurds in two self-governing enclaves in the north from the Iraq that was under the control of Saddam Hussein.
The directive would allow ordinary Iraqis to retain a substantial amount of arms, including pistols, rifles and shotguns, but would ban AK-47 automatic assault rifles, machine guns, mortars, grenades and heavier weapons such as artillery, anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles.
The top civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, on Friday issued a separate directive formally dissolving Iraq's armed forces as they existed under Saddam. Bremer abolished the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Information, the Republican Guard and other security institutions "which constituted and supported the most repressive activities of Saddam Hussein's regime."
A spokesman for Bremer said in a statement that the coalition plans to create "in the near future, a New Iraqi Corps." The statement added, "Under civilian control, that Corps will be professional, non-political, militarily effective, and representative of all Iraqis."
Besides the armed Shiite groups, the main militia in Iraq are the Kurds and the Free Iraqi Forces of the Iraqi National Congress under Ahmad Chalabi. McKiernan said Friday that Chalabi's militia was being "demilitarized." When Chalabi's militia first surfaced in Iraq last month, it received training under the supervision of an American Special Forces officer.
At the United Nations, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a long-serving U.N. executive who made his reputation in recent years helping repair the havoc caused by the world's nastiest regional conflicts, became Secretary-General Kofi Annan's choice as the U.N. special representative in Iraq, diplomats and U.N. officials said.
Vieira de Mello's current post, the high commissioner for human rights, will remain vacant during the four months he is expected to be in Baghdad, one official said.
Meanwhile, U.S. military commanders made it clear that the Bush administration will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Saddam Hussein's eldest son.
McKiernan, responding to a report that Uday Hussein might be seeking to surrender, said Friday he knew of no negotiations being held with envoys of Saddam's eldest son, and he insisted the U.S. military isn't seeking to cut any deals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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