The anti-democratic forces behind the current violence in Iraq -- whether insurgents in Fallujah or supporters of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- will be defeated and progress resumed on building a stable, democratic nation at peace with itself, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said in television news interviews on April 11.

"The real story here is this is a country of 25 million people who want to be free, who want a democratic system, which they're going to get with elections next year," Bremer said on ABC'S This Week With George Stephanopoulos. He reiterated that the June 30 deadline for the assumption of sovereignty by an Iraqi interim government remained unchanged.

On NBC's Meet the Press, Bremer observed that, over 35 years of oppression, "a lot of poison was built up in the Iraqi body politic, and what's coming out now is that poison. We are seeing it in the form of these few thousand people who are standing against the Iraqi people. And we are going to have to deal with that. It's just as well that we are dealing with it now rather than later."

The coalition has always recognized that there are both military and political dimensions to the problems of Iraq, Bremer said. Once the insurgents are dealt with, the coalition can resume the political work of giving the Iraqi people more responsibility for their own affairs, he said, as well as working with United Nations representative Lakhdar Brahimi to organize a representative government before turning over sovereignty at the end of June.

Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, appearing on Meet the Press with Bremer, acknowledged that some new Iraqi police and civil defense forces have not performed up to expectations, but he expressed determination to improve training and leadership.

"We are retackling the problem with greater intensity to identify what leadership has to be built, and that will be all the way from the national level down to the local level," Sanchez said. "I think it's going to take us awhile, but we're committed to it, and we'll be here until that's done."

On ABC's This Week, Bremer pointed out that some 350 Iraqi police have died in the line of duty defending their country. "The vast majority of the Iraqis support what we're doing," he said. "The vast majority of the people in the Iraqi security forces are prepared to fight and even die for their country. It doesn't mean we don't have more work to do. Obviously, we do."

Bremer defended the decision to seek the arrest of al-Sadr and the elimination of what Bremer termed his "mob" of supporters.

They are in illegal militia that have attacked police stations, tried to close schools, Bremer said. In Najaf, Sadr's forces attacked and killed Salvadoran, Spanish, and U.S. coalition forces," Bremer said, and Sadr himself has been indicted for murder by Iraqi courts.

"He is basically violating the entire concept of a peaceful society which is governed by the rule of law," Bremer said on ABC's This Week. "And what is interesting is that the vast majority of the Sh'ia people in this country understand that and are happy to have us deal with him."

Bremer noted an interesting contradiction in polls of Iraqi attitudes toward U.S. and coalition forces. "One, they don't like to be occupied -- and I don't blame them," Bremer said on Meet the Press. "It's not a nice word, to be occupied. Secondly, they don't really want us to go home, because they are worried that they are not capable of dealing with their own security."

Bremer added, "So I think we'll find as time goes on here that there's going to continue to be this contradictory view on the part of the Iraqi people. They don't really want us here, and they really do want us not to leave."