*EPF506 11/08/2002
Straight Talk About "The Day After" Saddam
(Iraqi Experts Discuss Short-Term Economic Needs of a Free Iraq) (780)

By Vicki Silverman
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - In late October a diverse group of Iraqi businessmen, economists and development professionals met at the Department of State to discuss ways to restore Iraq's short-term economic stability following a regime change in Baghdad.

Nasreen Sideek, Minister of Reconstruction and Development from the city of Erbil, which lies in the part of northern Iraq not under Saddam Hussein's direct control, was among the participants. Based on nearly a decade of first-hand experience rebuilding northern Iraq, she urged the group to consider maintaining a modified version of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program to ensure the most basic needs reach all Iraqi citizens. Sideek shared her perspective with the Washington File on November 3.

"It is important to understand that Iraqi Kurdistan has been living ����the day after [Saddam]' for the past eleven years. When we came down from the mountains in 1991, we found our cities destroyed. There was no water, no infrastructure����just an administrative vacuum����and we just took over from there and built," she explained.

"We rely today, in Iraqi Kurdistan, on revenue generated from the Oil-for-Food program ����In the past six years alone, we built over 25,000 housing units for displaced families; we established more than 1500 water systems to provide drinking water for whole communities; we built more than 900 schools, more that 250 health centers, and we laid thousands of kilometers of road in conjunction with the program."

More importantly, she noted, the Oil-for-Food program has evolved into an efficient, trusted mechanism to ensure resources reach people. "To cut the program overnight would create a disaster," she believes. "In an area like Iraqi Kurdistan, there is no food back-up, no fuel back-up."

Sideek said that some members of the working group initially questioned the need to continue a program that is tied to international sanctions, believing greater trust should be given to a new Iraqi government. "However, after some discussion, and after considering the reality on the ground, with many credible studies showing 60 per cent of Iraqis living in poverty, dependent on the food basket this program represents, I felt there was more support among my colleagues for maintaining this program for a transitional period," she said.

She and others have volunteered to draft recommendations on how to modify the program to encompass not only food and material purchases, but also support Iraq's "backbone" infrastructure and service personnel, possibly using revenue to pay salaries. This is not possible under the current UN resolution.

In addition to food security, Sideek and over a dozen other Iraqi participants in the Future of Iraq Project's "Economy and Infrastructure Working Group" discussed other priority needs of the Iraqi people. These included the provision of electricity, communications and medical care, schooling, municipal services, expanding income-generating opportunities and economic privatization post-Saddam.

Establishing a good communications network is very critical, Sideek told the Washington File. "We will need to reach out to all people and calm them down, mobilize and inform them. Information will be very important. We will really have to keep the people of Iraq informed, to give them a sense of confidence that they won't be hurt, that they will be secure."

As a result of their October meeting, the Iraqi experts agreed to continue their discussions within the framework of focused "sub-working groups." Their mission, according to one of the Iraqi experts, is to draw up more detailed proposals for critical initiatives related to the power and water systems, job creation and training, and food security.

"Although we may have been using terms often ascribed to disaster recovery, none of us feels that way," he explained. " ����The day after' will be the first day Iraqis will be able breath freely. Our goal is to help get things started and to hand it over to a more responsible government."

"I am really very excited contemplating the future of Iraq," Nasreen Sideek noted. "Speaking from a Kurdish perspective, we are ready to rejoin the Iraqi government and the rest of the country. We have always been running under Iraqi laws, as Iraqis. There is no big gap, except we are freer and more democratic. We are looking forward to rejoining and sharing our experiences in rebuilding and sustaining Iraq."

The Future of Iraq Project, launched in July 2002, offers Iraqi Americans, Iraqi Europeans and Iraqis from the region to meet together to determine useful projects that can be done between now and a change of government in Baghdad, as well as in the immediate aftermath of a transition. The Department of State serves as a facilitator. Once the free Iraqis determine their priorities, the U.S. government, and possibly other governments and institutions, decide what programs to fund and support.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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