- BAGHDAD -- Gunmen have killed
six Baghdad Counselors in the two weeks since the US occupation formally
ended, sending a wave of fear through Iraq's grassroots politicians.
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- "I am not sure if I can continue," a member
of the council in Mansour, the capital's wealthiest suburb, said yesterday.
He had been happy in a first interview to have his name used but changed
his mind after Jinan Joseph, a fellow councillor, was gunned down in his
own home the night before.
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- Unlike the frequent attacks on Iraqi police stations
and the assassinations of a handful of senior politicians, the killings
of Counselors go largely unreported in the Baghdad media.
- Yet they are the most vulnerable group in Iraq society.
-
- "Sixty-one of Baghdad's roughly 750 Counselors have
been killed in the last year. That's about 8%," the anonymous councillor
said.
-
- Counselors had hoped that with the transfer of sovereignty
they would gain a respite, but the rate of killing has increased. With
the installation of a government, they now fear marginalisation as well.
-
- At a recent meeting of the Mansour council, which has
20 men and two women members, the only visitors were a reporter and a group
of US army officers responsible for local security patrols.
-
- The meeting started with a minute's silence for two of
the slain Counselors and an interpreter for the US captain who was shot
as she left for work last week.
-
- "What is our role now that there is an Iraqi government?"
one councillor asked.
-
- Ali Radhi, an engineer chosen by the various district
councils to be Baghdad's mayor, recounted how he had approached a minister
in the new government for extra finance for the capital.
-
- "He told me, 'Go to the Americans. They appointed
you.'"
-
- Another councillor said: "They tell us we are traitors
because we are with the Americans, but they're the ones who were really
appointed. We were elected."
-
- Baghdad's system of government was one of the occupation
authority's proudest creations.
-
- After the centralised dictatorship of Saddam Hussein
it was meant to bring government close to people and show Iraqis that even
though there was not yet an elected national government local bodies were
already in action to help solve everyday problems.
-
- To choose the councils the Americans decided on a system
of local caucuses, to be organised by the Research Triangle Institute,
a private American company contracted by the US government.
-
- Using public notices and radio announcements in the spring
of 2003 they advised citizens of an open meeting in every neighbourhood.
-
- The few who turned up chose batches of eight people for
neighbourhood councils. These then voted among themselves for members of
the next tier, the 12 district councils. Others went on to the top tier,
the Baghdad city council.
-
- The Americans supervised the process to prevent Ba'athists
re-emerging but their controlling hand and the fact that many of the Counselors
who attended the caucuses were already on the US payroll as guards, translators
and subcontractors affected the councils' image.
-
- After days of prevaricating, the Philippines yesterday
announced it had started withdrawing its 51 troops from Iraq to secure
the release of a Filipino truck driver being held hostage by Islamist militants,
writes John Aglionby .
-
- Australia and the US strongly criticised the decision
to cave in to try to save Angelo de la Cruz. They said it would give further
succour to terrorists to attempt the same tactics.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1263313,00.html
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