Fed: Now for the battle for peace

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Fed: Now for the battle for peace

By Don Woolford

CANBERRA, April 10 AAP - Australia will be a full partner in the new battle for Iraq,the challenge of turning foreign military occupation into a democratic Iraqi government.

Winning the peace, as the federal government has acknowledged, may be tougher thanwinning the war.

But if peace and stability founder on the complexities of Iraq's ethnic and religiousdifferences, lack of democratic traditions or interference from neighbouring states, theimminent military victory will be worth little.

Not that the government is claiming the war is won yet.

Baghdad is still far from subdued, fighting continues near Tikrit and the oil-richnorthern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul have yet to fall - though as the investing force thereis largely Kurdish, the reasons may be more political than military.

Nevertheless, the government is increasingly turning its attention towards winning the peace.

Prime Minister John Howard, speaking after a meeting of the National Security Committee,gave an outline of Australia's contribution to the transitional authority that will runIraq for an indeterminate time.

The authority has a membership of three, the three invading countries, though Mr Howardheld out the possibility of others joining.

On the vexed question of a United Nations role, Australia seems to be firmly in theAmerican camp. It sees a role, but it doesn't seem to extend beyond helping with aid.

Mr Howard's disdain for the UN, arising from the refusal of the Security Council topass the last-ditch Anglo-American resolution, is undiminished.

Australia's role in the authority will be relatively small, but quite wide.

It will provide specialists, who could be military or civilian, to help search forthose weapons of mass destruction which were, after all, the fundamental justificationfor going to war in the first place.

Mr Howard sees no role for the UN weapons inspectors.

Some "niche" Australian peacekeeping help may be provided, probably by the SAS. Thenavy and RAAF will contribute to Persian Gulf security.

Apart from direct aid, Australia will help restore Iraq's devastated agriculture andunder-resourced petroleum industry. It may help in other areas where it has special skills.

While feeding and sheltering the people and getting its industries working again arecritical, the greater challenge may be creating a government that is democratic and seenas legitimate by the disparate peoples of the country.

Mr Howard said the government would be open and free, with the particular model up to the Iraqis.

Just how this will be managed, and how long it will take, is not yet clear.

Two broad models have been suggested.

The first is for three stages: a military authority, an interim Iraqi administrationwith its key figures appointed by the authority, and a full Iraqi government.

The alternative is for the military authority to gradually incorporate Iraqis intokey posts - probably starting with areas like education and welfare - and gradually movetowards a full government without having a formal middle stage.

Mr Howard said it was too early to get into handover models.

But he foresaw an ad hoc and localised process.

"We want to involve the Iraqi people as quickly as possible," he said.

"The British have already started doing it at a very basic local government level inthe south and they've established an authority that's made decisions about such importantthings as reopening schools and getting children back into classes.

"I would imagine there'll be many experiments around the country with different modelsover the months ahead."

AAP dw/sb/ph/de

KEYWORD: IRAQ AUST PEACE (AAP NEWS ANALYSIS)