News brings out hopes, skepticism

By Los Angeles Times and The Dallas Morning News

JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES Iraqis have their hair cut as a television broadcast shows Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at yesterday's handover ceremony. One Iraqi barber predicted "a 1 percent chance of change," adding, "They're always building up our hopes, but nothing ever changes."

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The people on the streets in Baghdad voiced the same reservation.

Arab rulers urged prompt elections. They fretted about Iraq's badly deteriorated security. And after 15 months in which turmoil and terrorism spread beyond Iraq's borders, they held out muted hope that Iraqi independence might help cool tempers throughout the region.

"All we want is ... that the Iraqi government is able to exercise its sovereignty and authority in a way that acquires credibility," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said.

In a message to Baghdad's interim leaders yesterday, Jordan's King Abdullah II pledged to help Iraq "regain its position as an independent and democratic nation enjoying freedom and prosperity."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher suggested the handover could begin to stem the bloodshed Iraq has endured since the invasion more than a year ago. "Once the Iraqis feel that they are their own masters, and they have a government that has power, then this will make the restoration of stability easier," he said.

In Tehran, Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh cheered "any step toward the transfer of Iraqi affairs to the Iraqi people and the termination of occupation."

In Syria, where official opposition to the war was intense, the tone was more somber. "Sovereignty means power, and power rests with the American army," said George Jabbour, a lawmaker and political scientist in Damascus. "So sovereignty has not transferred to the Iraqis; it is clear that it rests with the Americans."

Celebrations scarce in Baghdad

If Iraqis themselves were happy or upset over the handover, it certainly wasn't evident on the streets of Baghdad.

Not a single banner nor celebratory bullet fired into the sky was observed, in sharp contrast to the raucous celebrations that accompanied December's capture of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
 
"Real change doesn't come just because of a handover ceremony," said retired painter Salahuddin Khalil, 67. "People celebrate when they see change in the reality on the streets. It takes time for people to be convinced that the change is fundamental, not just symbolic."

Others were more cynical.

"I heard about it in the morning but I couldn't watch it on television," said Qaisar Sattar, who operates a juice stand in eastern Baghdad. "Our electricity went out."

Despite assertions by Iraq's new interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, that the nation is now sovereign, Sattar said he was skeptical.

"It's the same thing as before. Instead of Bremer, it's Allawi now," he said, referring to L. Paul Bremer, former chief of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority. "It doesn't matter. The White House is still behind everything."

Alaa Hassan, a barber, was even less hopeful. "I think there is a 1 percent chance of change," he said. "They're always building up our hopes, but nothing ever changes."

Small change at square

There was, in fact, minor evidence of change. At Firdaus Square in central Baghdad, where Iraqis and U.S. troops dragged down a bronze statue of Saddam to mark the government's fall on April 9, 2003, American soldiers arrived at midday yesterday to help erase a small remnant of their occupation.

They removed barbed wire and concrete roadblocks that had made traffic a mess in the area and turned the square into a virtual no-man's land.

Ismail Zaer, editor of the daily newspaper al-Sabah al-Jadeed, predicted the handover "will have a very positive impact" on Iraqis' lives over the long term. "But we have to understand that this is only one phase. We still have to solve the issue of the ongoing presence of forces, of tanks and weapons."