- BAGHDAD -- Anti-American
protests intensified in the Iraqi capital and in southern Iraq Tuesday,
April 15, as U.S. occupation forces struggled secure the country after
toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein.
-
- Exasperated U.S. military officials tried to hamper the
media from covering new demonstrations in Baghdad while some 20,000 people
in the Shiite Muslim bastion of Nasiriyah railed against a U.S.-staged
meeting on Iraq's future, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
-
- The protests came as the Americans delivered a first
progress report in their effort to restore Iraq to normalcy and head off
a chorus of criticism over continued lawlessness and a lack of basic services.
-
- Some 200-300 Iraqis gathered Tuesday outside the Palestine
Hotel, where the U.S. marines have set up an operations base, for a third
straight day of protests against the U.S. occupation.
-
- For the first time, visibly angered U.S. military officials
sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras
about 30 meters (yards) from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel.
-
- "We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel
because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here,"
said a marine colonel who wore the name Zarcone but would not give his
first name or title.
-
- The crowd later moved to the nearby square where the
statue of Saddam was toppled Wednesday to signal the end of the regime.
As three of the marines' armored amphibious vehicles passed by, they chanted:
"No, no, USA."
-
- Meanwhile, demonstrators marched to the center of the
predominantly Shiite southern city of Nasiriyah, chanting "Yes to
freedom ... Yes to Islam ... No to America, No to Saddam."
-
- They were protesting a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups
convened at a nearby military base in an initial attempt by the United
States to plot out a political future for the post-Saddam Iraq.
-
- "We want the American and British forces to go.
They have freed us from Saddam and their job is finished," said Ihsan
Mohammad, an official with the regional federation of engineers.
-
- "If they intend to occupy us, we will oppose that.
We ask them to leave us free to decide our future and not to impose people
on us."
-
- Although U.S. officials have all but declared their military
campaign over, tensions with the civilian population persist over a lack
of police protection, water, electricity and other basic services.
-
- Hundreds of international reporters here have also become
increasingly frustrated with the lack of information on the reconstruction
effort and the U.S. failure to provide other than haphazard access to public
affairs officers.
-
- As the Iraqi protest grew more vocal outside the hotel,
a marine corporal was holding an impromptu briefing for a few reporters
on the progress made.
-
- Corporal John Hoellwarth said the U.S. forces planned
to boost joint police patrols, bring more hospitals back into service and
have power restored to parts of Baghdad within 72 hours.
-
- Hoellwarth said the Americans were in Iraq to support
the Iraqis, not rule over them. "We are only going to stay here long
enough to help the Iraqi people restore critical infrastructure and help
them restore a government," he said.
-
- He said 50 electrical engineers were brought in to assess
the damage to the power system of the capital which went down April 4 amid
massive U.S. bombings and repairs began Monday.
-
- "We expect power to be restored to parts of Baghdad
in the next 48 to 72 hours," he said.
-
- With Baghdad's hospital system in a virtual state of
collapse after widespread pillage, Hoellwarth said 14 of the city's 33
facilities were secure and operational. He could not say when the others
would reopen.
-
- Hoellworth said that joint Iraqi-U.S. police patrols
began Monday with five Iraqi cars going out accompanied by marines in all-terrain
Humvees, and "today many more patrols are running."
-
- He said that U.S. forces put out a call for 150 Iraqi
policemen on Monday and had between 700 and
- 1,000 reporting for duty.
-
- "They are progressing steadily and we are also working
to work out neighborhood watch programs," Hoellwarth said.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-04/15/article05.shtml
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