Coalition hits the wrong notes

By Tarik Kafala BBC News Online

Massive busts of Saddam Hussein still stare down from the coalition's HQ

In some parts of Iraq, US and UK forces are coming under attack. But all over the country the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is struggling to get its message across to Iraqis.

These are confusing times for Iraqi trying to get to grips with the new rulers of their country.

Earlier in June it was announced that the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (Orha) was no longer.

A group of Iraqi journalists attending the daily briefing held at the coalition's regional headquarters at Hilla, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, had a series of urgent questions.

"Why the name change? What does this change mean? Does it mean anything? Are they going to stay longer? Who's in charge?"

The US and UK civil administration was suddenly renamed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). It is now headed by Ambassador Paul Bremer, a career diplomat with close ties to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Everything is temporary

A US Marine charged with media relations explained to the Iraqi journalists via an interpreter that the name change signalled a transition in the personnel running the coalition authority - soldiers and military administrators are heading home and the diplomats are arriving.

General Jay Garner and other senior officials have been quietly moved aside and are back in Washington. The new boss is a man in a smart dark suit - Ambassador Bremer.

Iraqis and coalition forces are not on the same wavelength

Iraqis are speculating that the re-branding may also indicate a new, more centralised approach to administering Iraq, and the intention to stay longer than had initially been planned.

For now, Mr Bremer's buzzwords are "provisional" and "interim". Every Iraqi appointed by the CPA to do a certain job is an "interim" official, and every decision or policy is "provisional".

The US Marine explained to the local journalists that this meant that if an Iraqi interim governor appointed by the CPA was found to be corrupt, incompetent or to have a past that made them unacceptable, he or she would be fired.

The interpreter translated this as officials who were found wanting "would be fired upon".

The translator and the Iraqi journalists didn't bat an eyelid at this - there seemed nothing strange to them in shooting an official who'd fallen out of favour.

When the US Marine had the mistranslation pointed out to him, he repeated several times that nobody would be shot, though they would be out of a job.

Echoes of the past

The CPA is struggling to identify suitable Iraqis to fill local government and ministry positions. The problem is that anyone with the right kind of experience and training is likely to have had links to the Baath Party through which Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq.

Saddam's image is making a comeback on bank notes printed by the CPA

To get ahead in Iraq, to hold any kind of government job, an Iraqi would have had to belong to the party at some level.

The CPA is relying heavily on a written declaration in which every official it appoints must renounce any allegiance to or membership of the Baath. An official who does not sign will either not be paid by the CPA or be sacked.

This declaration has some unfortunate echoes.

Under Saddam Hussein Iraqis who wanted government jobs had to join and swear allegiance to the Baath. There was actually a form, a written declaration, on which Iraqis pledged not to join any political party other than the Baath.

This form is infamous in Iraq, as it was often wheeled out at the "trials" of people alleged to be Kurdish nationalists, members of a Shia opposition group, communists, or anyone else unfortunate enough to be accused of political activity outside the Baath.

Being found guilty of breaking this pledge in Saddam Hussein's Iraq almost certainly resulted in execution.

All the wrong signals

There are other echoes of the past that, at least psychologically, undermine the effort to establish the new Iraq.

The CPA is operating from the Republican Palace, Saddam Hussein's main residence and office in Baghdad.

The palace is grand, gaudy and in many ways plain oppressive in its ornate and colourful celebration of its former resident. Inside all the portraits of the former leader have been taken down or covered up. But Saddam Hussein's presence is still overwhelming.

On top of the curving exterior façade half a dozen two-metre high busts of Saddam glower down at the US and UK officials struggling to bring order to a country that is now their responsibility.

And although Iraqis and the invading soldiers gleefully tore down the images and statues of the former leader back in April, his smirking face is making a comeback.

The CPA had to print to thousands of 250 dinar notes bearing the image of the former leader after it was found that the other main bank note in circulation was being widely forged.

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BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala has just returned from Iraq where he carried out a study of the Iraqi media for the BBC World Service Trust.