SHIASTAN IS WORKING:

City fights back to become model of order and justice: The battle for peace is still not won, but there is more hope than violence here (Rory McCarthy, November 15, 2003, The Guardian)

Hilla, a city of 300,000 people reputedly built from the clay bricks of the nearby ruins of Babylon, has emerged from America's war with less violence and more hope than most places in Iraq. In Baghdad and large areas north of the capital, the violent guerrilla resistance is severely hampering attempts at reconstruction. But in Hilla, better security and the work of a group of forward-looking Iraqi officials have made the city one of the few successes of postwar Iraq.

Overwhelmingly a Shia city, Hilla suffered some of the most chilling persecution of Saddam Hussein's regime. In May villagers dug up Iraq's largest mass grave in barren fields just north of the city, containing the remains of at least 3,115 men, women and children executed by the regime during the 1991 uprising after the first Gulf war. The relief that such brutality is finally over appears to have wedded the people of Hilla more firmly than most to US promises of reconstruction and democracy.

"The coalition forces freed us from the biggest dictatorial regime in the world. The mass graves were one of the greatest crimes against humanity," said Khalid Rais, a lawyer who heads the province's legal department from a renovated former school building in Hilla. "Without the coalition forces, Saddam would never have been finished. These forces will build a community of freedom and democracy."

Mr Rais was one of several well-educated people promoted in the days after the war to replace senior Ba'athists in the provincial government. He helped to organise armed volunteers to police the streets and curb looting. Well in advance of orders from the US administration in Baghdad, Hilla's new leaders began to dismiss Ba'athist apparatchiks.

More than 2,000 soldiers from the now disbanded Iraqi army were quickly absorbed into the police force and other legal security units. New judges were quickly selected from among the city's lawyers, and women's rights offices were opened. Elections were held to select men and women to sit on new local councils.

At the same time a 50-man "emergency force", led by the police chief, was formed in the town to hunt down and arrest Ba'athists wanted for trial. "We found Ba'athists and people who were storing guns, grenades, rocket launchers, dynamite," said Mr Rais. "People wanted revenge from the Ba'athists, but we felt you need to follow the law."

Within two months of the fall of Baghdad, witness statements were being taken in renovated courtrooms in Hilla before newly appointed judges to prepare for trials against Ba'athists accused of involvement in the 1991 executions.

Much of the direction for these policies came from the new governor, Iskander Witwit, a widely respected, straight talking former air force lieutenant colonel who lost his three brothers and more than 30 other relatives to Saddam's purges. On the wall in Mr Witwit's office hangs a photograph of the governor with Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary.

Mr Witwit, 57, insists that the key to Hilla's achievements was the early effort to impose law and order.

Shi'a populace, aggressive leadership, willing population, law and order the first priority, etc.--all the necessary elements for a smooth transition.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 15, 2003 7:08 AM