Ambassador Bremer Meets with Mayor of Mosul
By Robert Woodward
Army News Service, May 19, 2003

MOSUL, Iraq -- More than a hundred Iraqi farmers and soldiers hurled demands at the Mosul government building where Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, U.S. reconstruction chief, met with retired Iraqi general Ghamin Al-Basso, mayor of the city and the outlying Nineveh province May 18.

The meeting was part of Bremer's effort as the new head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to boost the development of interim governments in Iraq.

"Our coalition is intent on moving forward as quickly as we can to get Iraq on the path to representative government," Bremer said. "You have to deal first with the immediate job we just talked about, restoring law and order and basic services, and getting people paid."

Under the guidance of its commander, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the 101st Airborne Division had previously helped broker a series of political initiatives in the ethnically diverse northern territories, including the Mosul Interim Government Convention of May 5, and the Makhmor Accord of May 12, which resolved a heated dispute between Arabs and Kurds over how the profits from this season's wheat and barley crops would be shared.

Petraeus led Bremer on a tour of Mosul aboard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and later briefed him on the stability operations of the 101st at division headquarters in what was once Saddam Hussein's northernmost palace.

Bremer's arrival at the Civil Military Operations Center in downtown Mosul was less hospitable, as a crowd of former Republican Guard soldiers chanted from behind concertina wire and U.S. infantry sentinels, "Yes, yes, yes to freedom; no, no, no to occupation."

The group, called the Free Military Officers of Iraq, asked for back pay dating to January, the last time they were paid.

Some of the soldiers, like Ahmad Aziz, who was seriously wounded in the last Persian Gulf War, were retired and living on a pension.

"We bleed for Iraq," he said. "We've come to the council five times asking for help. What are they doing for us?"

Similar frustration was expressed by the homeless villagers from Berstk, who held aloft a banner petitioning for the return of their land and sheep, stolen by Kurdish peshmerga during the war.

Bremer heard the concerns of both groups and addressed them during a press conference after the meeting.

"We have seen and heard here on the streets today, the voice of freedom speaking from these demonstrators, free to express their views in a way they have been denied for 30 years," Bremer said. "The top priority of the coalition is to provide security for the Iraqi people everywhere in the country, to assure that the basic services like electricity, water, transportation, and food are resumed as quickly as possible, and that we are able to pay the Iraqi civil servants what is due to them."

According to Bremer, a "study group" visited Mosul last week and is preparing a preliminary report on the displaced persons, such as the Berstk villagers, in the region. There may be as many as 31 villages in the area.

This article by Specialist Robert Woodward of the 101st Airborne Division originally appeared on Army Link, an Internet news service of the U.S. Army (See more).