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Iraq 90 percent normalised: Bremer
Rome, Nov 19: Paul Bremer, the US civil administrator in Iraq, insisted in an interview published here today the situation in Iraq had been `normalised` in about 90 percent of the country, despite daily attacks on coalition forces.
Rome, Nov 19: Paul Bremer, the US civil
administrator in Iraq, insisted in an interview published
here today the situation in Iraq had been "normalised" in
about 90 percent of the country, despite daily attacks on
coalition forces.
"Around 90 percent of Iraq is calm, normalised, in
peace," Bremer told the Corriere Della Sera in the interview,
published the day after Italy buried its 19 nationals killed
in the bombing of its military base in southern Iraq, which
also killed nine Iraqis.
Bremer said the Nasiriyah bombing "was a red alert for everybody. No international contingent can have any illusions, nobody can feel immune to terrorism. Everyone has become a potential target."
He flatly rejected allegations by Italy's representative to his coalition provisional council, Marco Calamai, who resigned this week in protest at the way the US-dominated council was running the country and called for the operation to be handed over to the United Nations.
"I really don't know what he's talking about," said Bremer.
"Calamai says that we don't know how to manage the USD 400,000 a month allocated to the Nasiriyah region. But I can show him that from last may until now we spent more than USD 20 million in this area alone."
"He says we need the UN here? Well, we want them here too. But it was they who left Iraq, refusing our protection," added Bremer, a former US Ambassador to the Netherlands who has headed the council since May.
Bureau Report
Bremer said the Nasiriyah bombing "was a red alert for everybody. No international contingent can have any illusions, nobody can feel immune to terrorism. Everyone has become a potential target."
He flatly rejected allegations by Italy's representative to his coalition provisional council, Marco Calamai, who resigned this week in protest at the way the US-dominated council was running the country and called for the operation to be handed over to the United Nations.
"I really don't know what he's talking about," said Bremer.
"Calamai says that we don't know how to manage the USD 400,000 a month allocated to the Nasiriyah region. But I can show him that from last may until now we spent more than USD 20 million in this area alone."
"He says we need the UN here? Well, we want them here too. But it was they who left Iraq, refusing our protection," added Bremer, a former US Ambassador to the Netherlands who has headed the council since May.
Bureau Report