Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sciAticA errAticA who wrote (32831)	5/1/2003 6:44:47 PM
From: sciAticA errAticA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

A former Baathist looks to govern Basra with UK support 01.05.2003 [19:22] BASRA - A tribal leader and former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Sheikh Muzahem al- Tamimi is already the man to turn to in Iraq's second city Basra, where he hopes to work closely with British and US forces. A former businessman, engineer, lawyer and naval officer, Sheikh Muzahem is expected to be given the title of governor. The British forces who control Basra have already sought his help in running civic affairs. Sheikh Muzahem plays down talk that he has already been appointed, saying a governor will be chosen by Iraq's interim government which he expects to be in place "within a month." But the formalities mean little to many of Basra's 1.5 million citizens, who have already been seeing Sheikh Muzahem as the man accountable. His room in a villa in the heart of city sees a flood of visitors, from prominent figures to workers, who come to seek advice or discuss their difficulties. Sheikh Muzahem, 50, acknowledges he was part of the Baath Party, whose rule the US-led coalition ousted. But he stresses that he was only a Baathist "until the war" and that he was never a close associate of Saddam. "I'd like to serve my country," says the ambitious sheikh, clad in a flowing white robe and a traditional red-and-white checkered headdress. "We want to establish a government in co-ordination with the Americans and the British," he says. "There is a kind of co-operation between us, we have a channel of contact between us". That contact is made easier by Sheikh Muzahem's ease in expressing himself in English, which he learned in Iraq and perfected by reading literature. He also speaks Russian picked up over his five years studying in Russia. To the British, Sheikh Muzahem's past Baathist affiliation does not appear to be a problem and his name has been repeatedly mentioned as the chief player in post-Saddam Basra. The British are mostly concerned with finding a figure who enjoys the support of the population, said Colonel Chris Vernon, a British military spokesman. While Sheikh Muzahem has warned he does not enjoy universal support, backing for him is substantial, Vernon said. One international observer notes that Sheikh Muzahem's Baath ties were hardly pure. His brother opposed the regime and was murdered by the party in 1994, he said. The sheikh is viewed more as an opportunistic businessman than a partisan creature, the observer says. When asked about what he line of work he was involved in, Sheikh Muzahem rests his fingers on his neatly trimmed beard and responds cryptically, "any business," without further explanation. But with the past behind him, Sheikh Muzahem is trying his best to be a comforting force. A woman in her mid-50s sits down near his desk and, in a low voice, explains her troubles: she had been sacked from an agricultural supply business in Saddam's time. "She wants to resume work. I don't think there'll be any problem," he says, as his secretary takes notes from the other side of the office. Sheikh Muzahem doesn't have warm relations, however, with one influential group, the Iranian-backed Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI). Basra is an overwhelmingly Shiite city, and the SAIRI was the main Shiite Muslim movement opposed to Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime. Said Hussein al-Husseini, a local SAIRI official, says the movement did not have any relationship with Sheikh Muzahem and would never back someone who supports "the occupation." Sheikh Muzahem plays down such friction and dismissed speculation that SAIRI would seek an Iranian- style Shiite theocracy in Iraq. "I have talked to many of them and they don't have such ideas" about a clerical government, he says. Sheikh Muzahem remains optimistic. "The future will be better," he says, a pledge that may soon be his to fulfill. AFP www1.iraqwar.ru