BAGHDAD, 12 May 2003 — The US administrator for Baghdad vacated her post yesterday as Washington prepared a major overhaul of its leadership team in Iraq following sharp criticism of the sluggish pace of reconstruction in the country.
Officials said that Barbara Bodine, who was charged with running Baghdad and central Iraq, would be returning after less than three weeks work in the country to take up a new job in Washington.
The Washington Post also reported that Jay Garner, the retired US general who until now has been the leading US civil administrator in Iraq, will return home with his aides in the upcoming weeks.
The reshuffle coincided with the arrival in the Qatari capital Doha of Paul Bremer, a career diplomat and counterterrorism expert who is to take over the role of the top US civil administrator from Garner.
Accompanied by US Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the top military adviser to the Pentagon and the White House, Bremer was expected to outline his plans for postwar Iraq on his tour of the region, which would also include visits to Kuwait and Iraq.
The leadership shake-up comes amid continued frustration among many Iraqis over the halting progress made so far in rebuilding the country, over a month after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime on April 9.
No explanation was given for Bodine’s abrupt departure, while the Washington Post said she did not know the reason for the reassignment, which came in a late-night call on a phone that had been installed only hours before.
Iraq remains largely lawless with crime rampant on the streets, while the World Health Organization said last week it feared a cholera epidemic was breaking out in the southern city of Basra.
Bremer, who is known for his tough-talking style, served as chairman of the US National Commission on Terrorism and warned of attacks on the United States comparable with the 1941 assault on Pearl Harbor over a year before the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks. He arrives in the Gulf against a background of intensifying efforts by US officials and a leadership council of the main Iraqi factions to create an interim government in the next weeks which will take the country toward free elections.
However it remains unclear how much power the United States will be prepared to hand over to the interim government or when its occupying forces will leave the country.
US forces continued to consolidate their grip on Iraq, as the People’s Mujahedeen — an Iraq-based armed Iranian opposition group listed as a terrorist organization by Washington — began submitting itself to US control.
US officers said they had struck a deal with the group for them to give up their weapons and gather their 4,000-5,000-strong fighting force at a US camp in northern Iraq.
With the whereabouts and fate of Saddam and his immediate family still a mystery, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Damascus has allowed the relatives of top Iraqi officials from the regime into the country but not the leaders themselves.
“Some of them came to the border. They weren’t allowed to come in,” Assad told Newsweek, in response to accusations from Washington that Syria had cooperated with Saddam’s defunct regime.
Meanwhile, in a boost for financing the reconstruction process in Iraq, the oil ministry’s acting head said the country could resume oil exports by next month, when production may return to one million barrels per day.
The US commander of coalition forces in Iraq told Iraqis yesterday that Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party was dissolved and asked them to surrender all of the group’s possessions.
“The Baath Socialist Party is dissolved,” Gen. Tommy Franks said in a message read in Arabic on the US-run Information Radio broadcasting in Iraq.
“Anyone who possesses documents related to the Baath Party or the Iraqi government must maintain and protect them and hand these documents to the coalition,” the message said. Meanwhile, a massive fire broke out at Baghdad’s main telephone exchange in the center of the Iraqi capital.
At least two people were rescued from the blazing building, one by local residents and one by US troops, who took him away in a military vehicle. The cause of the blaze could not immediately be determined.
The US forces closed off the site and told residents to stay away because there were fears that the building would collapse.
