<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>(To quote from the pro-war Pete Townshend -- "Meet the new boss/(Not quite, but possibly soon to be the) same as the old boss . . ." DP)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 width=450 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=SingleArticleHeadLine>Iraq takes backward step in march to democracy</TD></TR> <TR> <TD class=ArticleText align=justify>July 8, 2004<BR><BR>By Robert Fisk<BR><BR>Iraq has introduced legislation allowing the Iraqi authorities to impose martial law; curfews; a ban on demonstrations; the restriction of movement; phone-tapping; the opening of mail; and the freezing of bank accounts. <BR><BR>These laws were announced yesterday by Iyad Allawi, Iraq's United States-approved prime minister - 17 months after the Anglo-American invasion in which President Bush promised to bring democracy to the country.<BR><BR>And, what's more, military leaders might be appointed to rule parts of the nation, while a temporary reinstatement of Saddam's death penalty is also now probable.<BR><BR>Already, therefore, Iraq has begun to look just like any other Arab country.<BR><BR>But the insurgency, which the laws are supposedly intended to break, exploded in gunfire in the very centre of Baghdad just as the new legislation was announced. <BR><BR>Incredibly, the fighting broke out in Haifa Street, one of the busiest thoroughfares next to the Tigris River, as gunmen attacked Iraqi police and troops. <BR><BR>US helicopter gunships, at roof-top level, could be seen firing rockets at a building in the street, which burst into flames. <BR><BR>Bullets hissed across the Tigris and at least three soldiers - all believed to be Iraqis - were killed close to the river bank.<BR><BR>Yesterday's violence in the capital was impossible to avoid. It began with a series of mortar attacks on the walled-off area where government officials live under American protection, with one of the mortars falling close to Allawi's home - another exploding beside a medical clinic close to his party headquarters. <BR><BR>The explosions echoed over the city. A bomb in a van, packed with shrapnel and artillery shells, was defused close to the government headquarters during the morning. <TABLE align=right> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=middle> <SCRIPT>top.DisplayAds('Pos7',2,132);</SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://adsrv.iol.co.za/adz/getAd.php?ord=960958647&pos=Pos7&site=2&section=132"></SCRIPT> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR><BR>Many Iraqis might initially welcome the new laws. Security - or rather the lack of it - has been their greatest fear since the American military allowed thousands of looters to ransack Baghdad after last year's invasion. <BR><BR>They have, anyway, lived under harsh "security" laws for more than two decades under Saddam. But the new legislation might be too late to save Allawi's "new" Iraq. <BR><BR>For large areas of the country - including at least four major cities - are now in the hands of insurgents. <BR><BR>Hundreds of gunmen are now believed to control Samara north of Baghdad.<BR><BR>Fallujah and Ramadi - where four more US marines were killed on Tuesday - are now virtually autonomous republics.<BR><BR>Bakhityar Amin, Iraq's new "minister of justice and human rights" - a combination of roles unheard of anywhere else in the world - was chosen to announce the martial law legislation.<BR><BR>"The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger - in danger from evil forces, from gangs and from terrorists," he said. <BR>"We realise this law might restrict some liberties, but there are a number of guarantees. We have tried to guarantee justice and human rights."<BR><BR>But there, of course, is the rub. Martial law is being introduced by an unelected government in the interests of <BR>"democracy". <BR><BR>And if, as many Iraqis believe, the continued presence <BR>of a vast American army lies behind the violence, then US military support for the harsh new laws will only fuel the insurgency.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></BODY></HTML>