Iraqis gain civic rule in town, US boosts security
( 2003-05-16 09:43 ) (7)

US forces launched a new war on crime in Iraq, where one small town became the first on Thursday to take a key step from military to civilian rule.

U.S Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would consider a suspension of U.N. sanctions against Iraq but later backed away from the idea, saying sanctions needed to be lifted. Washington wants Iraq to start generating revenue from oil.

Iraq's economy was ravaged during years of U.N. sanctions over ex-president Saddam Hussein's 1990 occupation of Kuwait and by the US-led war to oust him which ended in April.

In southern Iraq, the British Army handed over the port town of Umm Qasr to Iraqi civilian rule -- the first such handover of power since the end of the war. Local elections that would mark the rebirth of democracy in Iraq are due in the town next week.

Iraqis in Mosul elected an interim council earlier this month to run govern the country's third largest city, but US troops remain in overall control there. Eager to both kick-start the economy and re-establish law and order (news - Y! TV), the country's new US civilian administrator said US forces would put thousands of criminals released by Saddam back in jail and break the grip of lawlessness on Baghdad.

"There is a serious law and order problem, we will continue to address it," Paul Bremer told his debut news conference.

"Let us put things in perspective, this is not a country in anarchy, people are going about their business, they are going about their lives," he said.

One of the top US generals in Baghdad said US forces had begun a new initiative on Thursday to create a sense of order in the capital, boosting security patrols and collecting refuse.

"We're aggressively out on the streets now trying to show the people of Iraq that they do have a secure city to live in now," Major-General Buford Blount told reporters.

US forces would toughen efforts to stop looting and hold suspects for longer, but he denied reports soldiers had been ordered to shoot looters on sight.

"There are no 'shoot to kill' or 'shoot on sight' orders concerning looters," he said.

Bremer, who arrived in Baghdad on Monday, said thousands of Iraqi police officers, backed and trained by US forces, were on the streets and had detained 300 suspects over the past 48 hours, 92 of them on Wednesday night.

He promised to remove all officials of the former ruling Baath party from authority and issue guidelines for vetting Iraqis to ensure they had no close ties to the old government.

"Baathists and Saddam Hussein will not come back to (power in) Iraq. Iraq must remain free and independent, a stable and representative country," Bremer said.

SANCTIONS

Speaking in Bulgaria on Thursday, Powell said the United States would consider proposals that the United Nations initially suspend sanctions against Iraq before finally lifting them.

The idea is one of several compromises that could enable the United States to win support for a U.N. Security Council resolution which would enable Washington and its allies to start exporting and selling Iraqi oil.

But Powell later backed away from the proposal, saying sanctions needed to be lifted.

The United States says it wants the resolution to be passed next week but its proposal ran into opposition from France, Russia and others partly because it gave Washington the right to sell oil with minimal international supervision.

A draft of the resolution gives the United Nations a slightly more defined role in postwar Iraq but does not change basic Bush administration demands, according to a text distributed to Security Council members on Thursday.

Nevertheless, Russian envoys, who had strong criticisms, welcomed it as a step in the right direction and a sign of willingness to negotiate by the United States and Britain.

At a formal ceremony, British military authorities handed over Umm Qasr to an interim council of 12 Iraqis.

"The people of Umm Qasr are now in charge of their own destiny, for the first time in 35 years or longer," said the town's former military governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Jones.

The council which will run the town of 45,000 people close to the Kuwait border comprises volunteers, including local professionals and clerics.

Elections will be held in a week to appoint a new council.