THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION plans to get things right in Iraq prior to letting in the UN bureaucrats who might undermine security or attempt to block necessary reforms of Iraq’s political system and delay the prosecution of war crimes until a cumbersome and dilatory Rwanda-style UN tribunal can be set up.
U.S. Is Assembling a Civilian Team to Run Iraq
By ELIZABETH BECKER
ASHINGTON, March 24 — The United States is preparing to establish immediate sole control of postwar Iraq, initially without recourse to the United Nations, with a civilian administration under the direct command of the military, according to senior administration officials.
Even before American troops reach Baghdad, administration officials are assembling a team of civilian officials, largely retired American diplomats, to run Iraq as soon as the fighting is over.
The administration has decided that helping the country and its people recover after the war will require a civilian corps in place working with the military as it tries to establish security throughout the country.
European and Asian diplomats, while offering to help rebuild Iraq, raised questions last week about American plans to administer postwar Iraq without a central role for the United Nations.
While the issue is debated at the United Nations and the European Union, the administration is going ahead with its plans for a civil peacekeeping operation under the direction of Jay Garner, the retired general who directs the Pentagon’s new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
