Baghdad councils meet to discuss city problems

The AssociatedPress

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- After years of dictatorship, local Baghdad councils met for the first time in joint session Sunday to discuss the capital's infrastructure and how to improve the lives of residents.

In a scene unimaginable before the capital fell to U.S. invaders 3 1/2 months ago, the Baghdad Interim City Advisory Council, the Interim Advisory Neighborhood Council of Baghdad's 88 neighborhoods, and representatives from the U.S.-backed Governing Council held their first joint meeting.

Local leaders trooped to the podium to talk about life in the city.

"It is the beginning of enfranchisement of the Iraqi cities, especially in Baghdad," said Samir Shakir Mahmoud, member of the Governing Council who attended the meeting.

"In the past, the citizen used to receive instructions and keep in his place. He had to obey. Now the citizen generates demands ... It's a big transformation," he said.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker said "this is a great moment for you and Iraq. It is a great moment of democracy."

"All of you, members of the Neighborhood Council, District Council and Governing Council are writing a new chapter of the history of Iraq," he said.

Hank Bassford, the Coalition Provisional Authority regional coordinator for Baghdad, said "I think you have to remember that the end of the war was in April. We are talking about a very short period of time to achieve results."

Iraqis in Baghdad claim U.S. occupation authorities are not working hard to improve services such as electricity and telecommunications. They receive three hours of electricity every six hours and in many areas telephones, destroyed by American bombing, still don't work. Some of Baghdad's streets are filled with sewage.

U.S. officials said the return of total electricity and full water service and full sewage service and trash will take time but will occur.

Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who is working to reorganize the Iraqi police, said there is a need to triple the size of Baghdad's 25,000-member police force. He added that work is going on to build an Iraqi police force that "will probably be among the best trained in the Middle East."

Al-Thawra, a sprawling Shiite-majority slum in Baghdad known for years as Saddam city, was named al-Sadr City after the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who was killed by Saddam's regime in 1999. The April 7 district, named for the day when Saddam's Baath Party was created, was renamed April 9, the day Baghdad fell to the Americans.