OPPOSITION PLANS: The Iraqi opposition has formed a government-in-waiting which it hopes will win US support to take control immediately after the war, a senior opposition official said yesterday.
Called the Iraqi Interim Authority, the body has been created to assume control over a united Iraq once the Saddam Hussein regime has been removed.
Mr Nabeel Musawi, a senior official of the Iraqi National Congress, said the committee had been decided at a meeting held on Tuesday in the mountain redoubt of Salahuddin, headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
He said the new body "is not totally approved" by the US government, "but is under discussion." The four main opposition groups had also formed what they called a "joint command" to create an umbrella for their combined militia forces, totalling about 40,000 men under arms, Mr Musawi said at the mountain-top headquarters of the INC.
The formation of what amounts to a government-in-exile had been expressly opposed by the US administration amid concerns that such a move would see the entrenchment of the vested interests that are evident among the leaders who have emerged as aspirants for post-war power.
The Iraqi opposition group appears to represent a broad cross-section of Iraqi society - Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen, Assyrians, and, in religious terms, Sunni and Shia muslims.
It is unpopular, however, among Iraqis living outside the control of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government, who have told pollsters they would prefer a US military governor to take control of the country between the end of the war and the establishment of representative government.
The opposition generally is perceived as corrupt. Dr Chalabi is facing numerous law suits in northern Iraqi counts over outstanding wages and bills.
"The Iraqi opposition has been cashing millions of dollars for 12 years, not involving themselves in any grassroots democratisation in an attempt to build democratic change inside Iraq," said a member of a prominent political family in northern Iraq, where a semblance of open government has sprouted beneath the protective wing of British and US safe haven patrols.
"Ordinary people go for an American general because they think that he will treat them as equals, with dignity and respect, that he is not a thief, is not corrupt, and will make a clean opposition," he said. The man did not wish to be named.
Nevertheless, the Iraqi opposition appears to have taken a bold step towards ensuring that once the war is over and Saddam is no longer a factor, they can take immediate hold of the reins.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, another of the main groups, said in a statement that the committee aimed to unify the opposition parties, as well as the people of Iraq. It conceded, however, that a "final political and military declaration" was still under consideration.
Mr Musawi, in contrast, was much more sweeping in the finality he accorded the IIA.
"We already have a list of president and ministers, and have given this to the Americans," Mr Musawi said.
The IIA would function as a cabinet, he said, with 14 committees, rather than ministries, each with a chairman, rather than a minister.
"Some will become active in the coming days," he said, adding that some committees, such as those responsbile for aid, reconstruction, and the eradication of the Ba'athist Party, had already been formed.
The 14 committees would report to a general secretariat, made up of four individuals, each representing one leader - Ahmed Chalabi of the INC; Jalal Talabani of the PUK, which controls the eastern sector of northern Iraq; Massoud Barzani of the KDP which controls the western sector; and Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Islamic Revolutionary Council of Iraq, which is based in Iran with the support of Tehran.
Mr Musawi said he would represent Dr Chalabi on the general secretariat, "acting as his representative when these 14 committees report to me".
"The leadership will be a separate body that functions by itself; it's the last point of reference," he added. The door remained open, he said, to expanding the IIA. But he added that any new members of the government-in-waiting "need to present themselves and stand for something" .
"We don't have a Mandela in Iraq. Saddam Hussein did not allow any group of people of emerge and become a symbol for the country."