Iraq's martial-law powers unveiled

By Ken Dilanian
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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Machine-gun fire rattled and helicopters droned near the government center as American forces came to the aid of a group of Iraqi National Guard soldiers who were ambushed in broad daylight by better-armed Iraqi insurgents.

Four Iraqi guardsmen and one police officer were killed, and at least 19 were wounded, witnesses said.

The gunbattle, seemingly orchestrated to embarrass the new government, underscored a central dilemma as the government contemplates using the law.

To fight crime and terrorism, the measure grants Iraq's unelected prime minister and his cabinet the power to impose curfews, ban dangerous groups and detain suspects. But Iraqi security forces may not be up to the job.

Most of them have not been trained, and for weeks police chiefs have been pressing U.S.-led coalition officials for basic weaponry and equipment, such as bulletproof vests and sidearms for every officer.

Iraq leader's new powers Under Iraq's emergency law, unveiled yesterday: • The government has the right to declare a state of emergency for up to 60 days and extend that period by 30-day increments. • Prime Minister Iyad Allawi can set curfews, send security forces on searches, freeze suspects' assets and monitor their communications under the state of emergency. He can also assign military leaders to run restive areas. • The government will be able to detain anyone "whose behavior is suspicious." But any detainee must be brought before an investigative judge within 24 hours of arrest. • During any state of emergency, Allawi cannot suspend the country's Transitional Administrative Law, the legal code that governs Iraq during its interim government period. • Allawi, a secular Shiite with close CIA links, can invoke his new powers only with the unanimous approval of the Presidential Council — made up of the president, who is a Sunni Arab, and two vice presidents, a Kurd and a Shiite. Chicago Tribune, The Associated Pres and The Washington Post

Iraqi government officials, standing before Iraqi flags in a room once used by briefers from the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority, insisted yesterday that Iraqi soldiers and policemen would enforce the law.

Yet Iraq's fledgling government can scarcely protect its own ministers, many of whom work behind U.S. machine-gun turrets. Much of Iraq's under-trained, ill-equipped army refused to fight in April when sent into the restive city of Fallujah. Iraqi police officers surrendered or ran away by the thousands when confronted by Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army.

In case added firepower is needed, the security order announced yesterday gives Prime Minister Iyad Allawi the power to call on U.S.-led multinational forces. There are about 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq.

Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the office of security transition in Iraq, has reported progress in training and equipping Iraqi forces. But he acknowledged that it will take months, if not years, to complete the job.

"How can you carry out this law if the Iraqi forces aren't qualified yet?" an Iraqi journalist asked the ministers yesterday.

"We have very high confidence in the forces existing now," replied Gen. Babekir Zibari, a senior adviser to the defense ministry.

Iraqi forces didn't share that confidence yesterday.

Three National Guard troops who survived the attack, speaking outside a hospital where at least 19 of their comrades lay wounded, said that about 30 of them were patrolling residential Haifa Street when the attackers struck. They said they were outnumbered, outgunned and outmaneuvered by militants shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great."

They recognized some of the fighters from the neighborhood, undermining interim government officials' constant assertions that such attacks are the work of foreign terrorists.

"We cannot win this war with these kinds of weapons," said Umar Hassan, 19. "They have grenades and machine guns. We are fighting them with AK-47s. Also, the government keeps saying 'Arab fighters.' These were Iraqis who attacked us."

Said Wissam Hadi, 33: "They are from the neighborhood. I could recognize them. They are doing that for revenge, because many of their families had been arrested by the Americans."

Before the attack, four mortar rounds exploded in a Baghdad district near a house used by Allawi, injuring a woman and her daughter, the prime minister said in a written statement.

Allawi's administration assumed sovereignty June 28 after being appointed by the United States and the United Nations. His temporary government is supposed to steer the country toward elections in January.

The new law allows Allawi and his Cabinet to declare a "state of emergency" for up to 60 days in part or all of Iraq. That would allow authorities to detain and search people, even without a warrant, in "extreme exigent circumstances," according to the English version released yesterday. It also allows the government to seize terror suspects' property.

A declaration of an emergency under the law would let Allawi temporarily set aside many of the protections in an Iraqi Bill of Rights that Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer touted as one of the major achievements of his tenure.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a country just freed from 35 years of totalitarianism, Iraqi journalists focused on whether the provisions would infringe on civil rights. Ministers insisted they wouldn't, and pointed out that Iraqi judges would review all decisions made under the law.

The country's human-rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, likened the new law to the Patriot Act, a post-Sept. 11 law that gives the United States sweeping powers to track down terrorists. "The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger," Amin said. "They are in danger from evil forces, from gangs of terrorists."

On the streets, people expressed a desire for the government to do something — anything — to stop the violence.

"Personally, I think this law can curb terrorist acts, and I don't find any other punishment for such criminals justified, except to kill them," said Salam Orisho, 30, whose family owns a Baghdad grocery.

Special Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondents Saleem Khalaf, Omar Jassim and David George contributed to this report. Additional information from The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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