Posted on 04/22/2003 12:45:27 PM PDT by Shermy
The retired US general charged with forming an interim administration in Iraq has arrived in the north of the country on the second day of a tour around the country. Jay Garner received a rapturous welcome from crowds in Sulaymaniyah - in contrast to a lukewarm reception in Baghdad on Monday.
He was sprinkled with flower petals and some people's eyes filled with tears of emotion as he walked through the streets, reports our correspondent in the city, Clare Marshall.
Mr Garner is remembered in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq as the man who, 12 years ago, set up a safe haven for refugees fleeing Saddam Hussein's brutal suppression of a Kurdish revolt.
The region then became semi-autonomous, shielded from Saddam by a US and UK-imposed no-fly zone.
Mr Garner was embraced at the airport by Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish groupings.
"You always make me feel at home," Mr Garner said.
Mr Garner visited the city's university, where he addressed cheering students.
"What you have done here in the last 12 years is marvellous and it is a wonderful start to self-government and democracy, and what you have done here can serve as a model for the rest of Iraq," he said.
However, the rather sceptical reaction he received yesterday in Baghdad shows that Mr Garner will have a lot of convincing to do if he is to recreate this success story throughout the country, says our correspondent.
Three-way talks
Mr Garner then visited a school activities centre, where he was greeted with flowers from clapping children - although those questioned by journalists did not actually know who he was.
Mr Garner then travelled about 50 kilometres north-west to Dukan, where he had lunch with Mr Talabani and Massoud Barzani, leader of the power-sharing Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), before three-way talks.
"President Bush has proposed a very good proposal for Iraq, a federation, and that we support," Mr Talabani told Mr Garner before lunch.
But despite the display of unity, tensions have resurfaced between the Kurdish groups in recent weeks.
Mr Barzani complained bitterly when looting and attacks on Arabs followed the PUK storming of the northern city of Kirkuk.
Clashes between the two Kurdish groups degenerated into full-blown civil war in 1996 before the parties finally reconvened the first full Kurdish parliament for eight years last October.
Nice! Who is she?
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