*EPF306 04/09/2003
Rumsfeld Hails a "Very Good Day" for the Iraqi People
(Defense Department Report, April 9: Iraq, Afghanistan Update) (790)

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld welcomed a "very good day" for the Iraqi people April 9, but cautioned that there is still much to be done before the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein is completely removed, the nation secured and a democratic, representative government installed.

"Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing.

"There is no question but that there are difficult and very dangerous days ahead and that fighting will continue for some period," he said. "But certainly anyone seeing the faces of liberated Iraqis -- freed Iraqis -- has to say that this is a very good day."

Rumsfeld said coalition forces must capture, account for or otherwise deal with Saddam Hussein, his two sons and the senior Iraqi leadership.

"We must not and should not become overconfident," Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon briefing alongside Rumsfeld. The most senior civilian and military leaders of the U.S. armed forces reflected on a day of striking events as jubilant Iraqis in Baghdad overturned statues of Saddam Hussein, often with the help of U.S. forces, and greeted coalition forces in the streets of the capital city.

"The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statutes of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad are breathtaking," Rumsfeld said. "Watching them, one cannot help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain."

Rumsfeld pledged to those Iraqi people not yet free of the regime of Saddam Hussein, "you will be free."

Rumsfeld said coalition forces still need to find seven known U.S. prisoners of war, and Myers reminded the Iraqi Army -- in a direct message -- that by the terms of the Geneva Conventions they must allow delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the U.S. POWs as soon as possible.

In addition to recovering and accounting for the POWs, Rumsfeld said the coalition must also secure the northern oil fields, find and secure Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, capture or kill the terrorists still operating in Iraq, locate Baath Party members and their weapons and records, and begin the process of working with free Iraqis.

"Much work remains, but this we can say with certainty: the tide is turning, the regime has been dealt a serious blow, but coalition forces will not stop until they have finished the job, the regime is removed and ... all of the Iraqi people are liberated," he said.

Myers said U.S. Army Special Forces have seized a small town north of Mosul and key positions south of Irbil, destroying tanks and trucks, and taking several hundred enemy prisoners of war.

"Fighting inside the capital presents a substantial risk to coalition forces, and we cannot and must not become overconfident," Myers said.

Rumsfeld said that since the defeat of the Iraqi regime in the south of Iraq, humanitarian assistance has begun flowing into the country, reversing the crisis created during the reign of the regime.

He cited Umm Qasr as an example, saying it has begun to flourish and the local population has risen from 15,000 prewar to more than 40,000 now, due to the availability of supplies and employment.

"Water supply is above prewar levels -- [a] combination of U.K. pipeline and trucking," he said. "Electricity has been restored by U.K. engineers. Sufficient food is readily available. Medical facilities are sufficient and operating."

He added that UNICEF has begun providing supplies, the port at Umm Qasr is now clear of mines and open to limited shipping operations as the channel is being dredged, and the railway station has been cleared of explosives.

And Rumsfeld said he could cite other examples as well of the rapid humanitarian response that is taking place in secured areas of the nation.

Finally, Rumsfeld said Syria has continued to permit senior Iraqi leadership to enter its country and has continued to send material into Iraq. "We find it notably unhelpful," he said.

Myers added that in Afghanistan 11 Afghan civilians were killed in a bombing April 8, after U.S. troops pursued enemy forces in the vicinity of Shkin.

"Close air support was called in, and guided munitions accidentally landed on a house, killing 11 Afghan civilians. We sincerely regret the incident," Myers said.

(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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