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Subject: Iraqi Opposition Meets in Kurdistan To Prepare for Post-Saddam State<By Caryle
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 04:28:31 EST
Message-ID: <34.1992Oct28.042831@AmeriCast.com>

Iraqi Opposition Meets in Kurdistan To Prepare for Post-Saddam
State<By Caryle Murphy=Washington Post Foreign Service=

SALADIN, Iraq - After two years of fruitless bickering and exag-
gerated rhetoric, the most comprehensive gathering of exiled op-
ponents of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is meeting in this
sleepy hamlet in the mountains of Kurdistan to elect a unified
leadership.  Organizers said they expect the group also to en-
dorse principles for a democratic, federalized state in Iraq that
would form the basis for a new political system following the re-
moval of Saddam from power.

The 174-member general assembly, 24-member executive committee,
and governing body of up to seven people, all representative of
Iraq's three main communal groups - Kurds and Sunni and Shiite
Muslims - that will be chosen are not intended to be a
government-in-exile, an organizer of the meeting said.

Rather, the aim is "creation of structures that are credible,
representative, and enjoying the support of the international
community," he said. "We do not claim to represent the Iraqi peo-
ple, except for the Kurdish officials who are elected," he added.
"We claim to represent a position that will enable the Iraqi peo-
ple to choose their government freely" if Saddam is ousted.

The conference, which began yesterday

, is another reminder to Baghdad of its loss of control of much
of Iraqi territory, and the presence in Iraq of delegates from
Cairo, Tehran, London and the United States to debate the future
of their country provides a stark contrast to the silence imposed
on the rest of Iraq's population.

The conference, hosted by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, whose
headquarters is near here, is the climax of a tortuous bargaining
process that began earlier this year and has gradually brought
increased cooperation among the fractious exile community.

The bodies to be elected this week are extensions of "executive"
and "parliamentary" committees set up at a June meeting in Vienna
of 200 Iraqi opposition figures. Seats in each body were allocat-
ed according to percentages designed to balance Iraq's diverse
ethnic and political groups.

Not all are happy with the number of seats they got, but most
groups are bowing to the greater urgency of unity. The Assyrian
Democratic Movement, representing an estimated 1.2 million Iraqi
Assyrians, for example, was given only 3 percent of the general
assembly seats.

This is "the same as for the Iraqi Communist Party, which to me
is an insult to Assyrians," said Assyrian delegate Albert Yelda.
But the Assyrians have decided to accept this for now since "our
first aim is unification of the Iraqi opposition movement so we
might replace the regime sooner or later of Saddam Hussein," he
said.

One of the most hotly debated issues will be the Kurds' demand
for self-determination within a new, federal system in Iraq.
Some other groups warn that federalism could lead to fragmenta-
tion of Iraq.  Baghdad dismisses what it terms the "so-called
Iraqi opposition" as "traitors who sold out to the United States
and Israel," Iraqi Information Minister Hamid Yusuf Hammadi said
in a recent interview.

"What kind of national opposition is it that stays at Hilton
Hotels in Paris, London and Washington and lives off" money from
Persian Gulf leaders? asked Hammadi. "What kind of opposition is
it that has 74 parties that have no popular base?"

But Saladin, which is named for a 12th century Muslim leader whom
Saddam often cites as a model and which once drew Baghdad
residents seeking escape from the capital's steamy summer heat,
has not had tourists for two years.

Like the rest of war-scarred Iraq, it is still under a U.N. trade
embargo and amenities are in short supply. Its main street has
one nonworking traffic light and, until a cleanup campaign for
the conference, its three hotels did not always provide sheets
with the beds.

Amid rumors that Baghdad is offering a bounty to anyone who kills
a delegate to the conference, extra Kurdish guerrillas have ar-
rived to beef up security. Overhead, U.S. planes streak through a
brilliant blue autumn sky to enforce a "no-fly zone" from which
Iraqi planes are banned.

Only a small group of exiled Iraqi Baathists - dissidents from
Saddam's ruling party - and some Arab nationalists who live in
Damascus have refused to attend. But their absence appears mostly
due to Syria's distress at not being able to control the politi-
cal agenda here.

While mutual suspicions still remain strong in what is a
casserole of political views among the Iraqi delegates, they hope
that their discussions here will have a psychological effect in
the rest of their homeland.

"We hope that this will attract people from those around Saddam
and encourage people near the center of power to cooperate as the
snowball grows," said one delegate.<02:26 10-28C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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