Posted on 05/24/2003 1:54:39 PM PDT by Pokey78
BASRA, Iraq, May 24 — Iraqi soldiers complained bitterly today of the allies' plans to disband the country's armed forces, with some threatening to take up arms against occupying American and British troops unless their salaries were continued.
About 50 Iraqi soldiers marched to one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces here in this southern city to air their grievances. They were turned away without incident by heavily armed British soldiers at the front gate. Similar complaints were raised by soldiers in Baghdad.
"If they don't pay us, we'll start problems," said Lt. Col. Ahmed Muhammad, 41, a 25-year navy veteran based in Basra and a leader of the disgruntled Iraqi soldiers. "We have guns at home. If they don't pay us, if they make our children suffer, they'll hear from us."
Other soldiers made similar threats. They said they followed the instructions laid out in the leaflets dropped by allied aircraft before the war encouraging them not to fight on behalf of Mr. Hussein.
"The U.S. planes dropped the papers telling us to stay in our homes," said an Iraqi tank driver here who refused to give his name. "They said our families would be fine."
On Friday, L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, issued an order dissolving Iraq's armed forces, abolishing institutions that he said "constituted and supported the most repressive activities of Saddam Hussein's regime."
In the northern city of Kirkuk today, 30 people were elected to a new city council. American authorities, however, detained five delegates who were suspected of having been high-ranking members of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party.
South of Baghdad, in Karbala, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, a leading Shiite cleric, told followers that Iraqis must be allowed to govern themselves. [Page 18.]
Meanwhile, an Iraqi oil official in Baghdad said that oil production would double in about a month and that oil exports would resume by mid-June now that United Nations sanctions have been lifted. The official said Iraq was producing about 700,000 barrels a day, up from fewer than than 300,000 barrels two weeks ago. Before the war, the country's output was about 2.7 million barrels a day.
Also in Baghdad, american administrators issued the first wages to government workers since the war, to electricity workers in the capital.
In Basra, some angry soldiers said today that their military service was primarily a job to help feed their families and that they ought to be treated the same as civil servants, some of whom started receiving payments from the American civil administration today.
"I am entitled to my pension," Naser Shbeb, a retired Iraqi Navy officer, said angrily.
The British military, which is patrolling Basra, has met with the disgruntled Iraqi soldiers. A British military spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Clive Woodman, said that the former soldiers would be registered in the weeks ahead and that some would be employed on civilian projects to help Basra recover from the war.
"The whole issue of how we employ the ex-Iraqi military is a controversial subject," Commander Woodman said. "It won't be solved overnight. We are switching the electricity on and getting the water running. But this one is more difficult."
The first step, he said, would be to compile a list of all members of the military. After the list is screened, some will be put to work in nonmilitary roles. The long-term goal, Commander Woodman said, would be to create a new Iraqi military under the oversight of Iraqi civilians.
But Colonel Muhammad complained that he and other Iraqi soldiers had not been paid since the former government issued them their salaries in February.
Colonel Muhammad said he used to receive 200,000 dinars a month, the equivalent of about $200. He said his family, like so many others in Iraq, was now struggling.
Allied officials did not respond directly to the Iraqi soldiers' threats to fight if they were not paid.
In Baghdad today, the American military issued an order giving Iraqis three weeks to hand in any automatic and heavy weapons they have. "After June 14, individuals caught with unauthorized weapons will be detained and face criminal charges," the order said.
Iraqis will still be allowed to have pistols, shotguns and some other light firearms.
Iraqi soldiers were not the only ones who took to the streets today to voice their grievances. A group of widows who lost their husbands in the Iraq-Iran war gathered at a British military base in Basra to ask for the government checks they received under Mr. Hussein to be continued. Others gathered outside the base were seeking relatives who they had lost track of during the war.
Iraqi soldiers said today that they should not be neglected in the new Iraq.
With many of his men urging him on, Colonel Muhammad talked of how the war might have unfolded if he and the many others had taken up arms. "The Iraqi soldiers are champions," he boasted. "We are so fierce. If we had fought, the war would still be going on. The British and the Americans would not be in our palaces. They would not be on our streets. We let them in."
Even soldiers who did not lay down their weapons until Baghdad fell said they were only doing what any soldier would do, fighting to protect their land from foreign invaders. They want payments, too.
"We weren't fighting for Saddam," said Nazar Abdalamer, 35, an army captain. "We were fighting to keep our families safe. I didn't want my family killed by Americans."
"I don't want Americans to pay my salary," he continued. "Our country is very rich. I want my salary to come from our riches."
Colonel Muhammad acknowledged that the city, which is still unsafe after dark, was not yet ready for the allied troops to leave.
"They must repair the damage they've done," he said. "Then they should let us run our own country. I fear they'll be here for 100 years."
Oh really?! A few of these demanding little snots ought to be strung up in the town square.
but this time they have to work,no more saddam money.
You would you bleeding heart liberal! I say kill them right then and there! Bullets ae cheaper than paychecks!
You would you bleeding heart liberal! I say kill them right then and there! Bullets ae cheaper than paychecks!
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