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Garner: Iraqi ministries to reopen next week'We have a coordinator for every ministry'
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's government ministries should be back in business next week and completely in Iraqi hands as soon as possible, the U.S.-led coalition's interim administrator said Thursday. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner told reporters that the process of reconstructing Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime "will go faster than people think." "As we get into the ministries and other government functions and we start the reconstruction effort in those, as the Iraqis themselves are ready to accept the leadership in that, we'll turn it over," he said. Garner and his team met Thursday with about 30 Iraqis who officials said represented a cross section of Baghdad. One aide described the Iraqis as "technocrats" who operate the city's infrastructure. "What we told them this morning is we wanted to reopen the ministries next week," Garner said. "We have a coordinator for every ministry. We told them if they can get the people together ... if there's no longer a ministry [building], we'll find a ministry. If there's no furniture, we'll buy the furniture." Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, the top British member of Garner's team, said it was "just not true" that the United States was "bringing people in to run the ministries." "Nobody is going to run those ministries except the Iraqis themselves," he said. Garner's meeting with the Iraqis centered on Baghdad's infrastructure and the re-establishment of basic services, which he said were "in good shape." They also discussed Iraqi exile Mohamed Mohsen al Zubaidi, a member of the Iraqi National Congress who has declared himself de facto mayor of Baghdad. "They brought up Mr. Zubaidi's self-appointment," Garner said. "If the people of Baghdad are unhappy with him, all they have to do is come tell us, and we will ask him to leave, and we will show him how to leave. He is not supported by the coalition." Zubaidi announced last week that a group of city leaders had chosen him as governor of Baghdad, essentially the city's mayor. Cross and Garner insisted that Iraq was not in the dire straits portrayed by reporters' questions. "It's very difficult to take people out of a darkness and lead them into light but that happens," Garner said. "Once they have been standing in light long enough, their eyes will adjust." Cross added, "Frankly, we do not have the humanitarian problems we feared we were going to have. We do not have the reconstruction problems that many people said we were going to have. "I'm not saying the problems aren't serious, but this is not a humanitarian crisis in the sense that you have in Rwanda and the Balkans and Macedonia. It's just not on that scale," he said. "I don't think it's a political crisis either. I mean, crikey, we've only just started." Garner said protests Wednesday by Shiite Muslims calling for the United States to withdraw immediately from Iraq had "a little more magnitude than I expected" but did not represent the majority of Iraqis. He said he was concerned by reports that Iran may be backing the Shiite movement to help establish Iraq as an Islamic republic. "I'm being candid when I tell you that I don't think the coalition is going to accept any external influence," he said. Garner said his office was "doing everything we can to make this as easy as we can" and sharply rejected a reporter's suggestion that the coalition's administrators were positioning themselves to be the "founding fathers" of Iraqi democracy. "I think Iraqis are going to be founding fathers," he said. "This is a hard job. It's a tough job. We're going to make mistakes, but we'll rectify them."
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