Iraq’s Governing Council head killed

TONY JONES: Iraq’s Governing Council has labelled the assassination of its president a great loss and US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer has called it a vile act.

The suicide bomb attack that killed Ezzedine Salim has shaken the country just six weeks before the handover to Iraqi sovereignty.

Mr Salim and as many as nine others died when a blast destroyed two cars waiting at a checkpoint outside the so-called Green Zone controlled by the US in Baghdad.
Iraq’s Governing Council head killed
Reporter: Norman Hermant

TONY JONES: Iraq’s Governing Council has labelled the assassination of its president a great loss and US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer has called it a vile act.

The suicide bomb attack that killed Ezzedine Salim has shaken the country just six weeks before the handover to Iraqi sovereignty.

Mr Salim and as many as nine others died when a blast destroyed two cars waiting at a checkpoint outside the so-called Green Zone controlled by the US in Baghdad.

Norman Hermant reports.

NORMAN HERMANT: The message from this powerful bomb could not have been clearer.

It ripped apart cars just outside the so-called Green Zone controlled by the US, the most secure area of Baghdad.

The target was the most protected Iraqi in the country – the head of the Governing Council.

Iraqis have been reminded, six weeks from the handover of sovereignty, no one is safe.

COLONEL MIKE MURRAY, US ARMY: We believe that it was a suicide bomb, that the individual that set it off was a terrorist and that he was killed in the explosion also.

NORMAN HERMANT: Ezzedine Salim’s car caught the full force of the blast.

Also known as Abdel Zahra Othman Mohammed, Mr Salim took over as head of the Iraqi Governing Council on 1 May under a system in which the presidency rotates each month.

He was a Shiite and led the Iranian-linked Islamic Dawa Party in Basra.

He is the second member of the Governing Council to be assassinated.

Akela Hashemi, the only woman member, was gunned down last September.

Council members say this latest assassination only strengthens their resolve.

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: This shows to all these people who have been dismissive of the Governing Council – that it’s not effective, that it’s not representative – that they are the prime targets of these terrorist attacks and those anti-democratic forces who want to derail this process.

But we will not be cowed, we will not be intimidated and we will continue the march for the new Iraq.

NORMAN HERMANT: The death was also quickly condemned by members of the coalition.

JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: What this shows is that the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from the occupiers to the Iraqi people.

And that these terrorists are enemies of the Iraqi people themselves.

NORMAN HERMANT: This bombing is also sure to further complicate the transition to Iraqi sovereignty for the US.

Its forces continue to walk a fine line in the face-off with the militia of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy cities of Najaf and Kabala.

American armour patrols the streets, but so far has refrained from direct attack on some of the holiest shrines in the Shia religion.

And for the US, there’s no end to scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

The latest allegations, that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally approved changes to interrogation methods – methods that wound up being used in Abu Ghraib prison.

SEYMOUR HERSH, JOURNALIST: I’m not saying Rumsfeld authorised what we saw in the last few weeks, but he did authorise these guys to come into the prison system and jack it up, get better stuff.

NORMAN HERMANT: The Pentagon vehemently denies the allegations, but they are bound to increase the pressure on Mr Rumsfeld to step down.

For Democrats and Republicans the battle lines are drawn.

CARL LEVIN, DEMOCRAT SENATOR: All the focus has been on the few at the bottom that we’ve seen pictures of.

It goes way further up than that.

LINDSEY GRAHAM, REPUBLICAN SENATOR: I’ve never believed this was just a few rogue MPs, but I’m not willing to indict everybody in the system until I have more evidence.

NORMAN HERMANT: Still, it’s more bad news for the President, whose approval ratings have hit their lowest levels ever.

Norman Hermant, Lateline.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1110201.htm