Bremer Says U.S. Presence in Iraq Now Up to Iraqi People

American envoy L. Paul Bremer told a news conference, according to wire services, “The timing of how long the coalition stays here is now in the hands of the Iraqi people.”

The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, officially convened this weekend, is the first national political body in the country since a U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein’s regime. The council, whose actions face a potential veto from Bremer, will oversee the writing of a new constitution, which will be voted on by referendum.

“Then our job, the coalition’s job, will be done. We have no desire to stay any longer than necessary,” Bremer said.

Bremer also called attention to the “daunting” task of rebuilding the Iraqi economy, blaming the country’s continuing electricity shortages on an antiquated system and a regime that “underinvested in every aspect of this country.”

“We need to undo the enormous economic damage that has been done here over the last 30 years,” he said.

Bremer’s comments come as the Defense Department announced it would keep thousands of U.S. troops from the Army’s Third Infantry Division in Iraq indefinitely, despite earlier plans for many of the soldiers to return home by September.

The U.S. Army announced that the soldiers, including members of the Third Squadron and Seventh Calvary Regiment, will remain in Iraq due to ongoing attacks against coalition forces. Some 32 American military personnel have been killed in Iraq since President Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1.

The Third Infantry’s commander, Major General Buford Blount, said in an e-mail to the soldiers’ spouses this week that the troops have been ordered to stay in the country due to the “uncertainty” of the situation there, according to a BBC account.

“These soldiers have been here about 10 months after training hard in the desert for six months. They are doing hard work,” Blount told Reuters Television. “They are doing a good job here. Morale is good. We are trying to get them out of here. But they have to stay focused on the mission.”

“It’s a big shock,” Sgt. Josh Holt told Reuters, echoing the disappointment of some American soldiers who had been eagerly awaiting their return home.

“It has been tough. I have had to take a 7-year-old child home whose father we killed in an exchange of fire,” said Holt. “The family just cried. They just cried. I am sure they will try to get revenge. That is the way it works in Iraq.”

The Third Infantry Division, which is comprises almost 17,000 soldiers, is best known for leading the ground advance on Baghdad during the Iraq war. Several thousand members of the division began returning to the U.S. last week.

A Pentagon spokesman told the BBC that the U.S. expects to bring the rest of the division home in the fall.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council announced Tuesday that it had agreed to implement a war crimes tribunal that would prosecute former Iraqi officials, including Saddam himself, for torture, mass killings and other abuses committed while his regime was in power.

“The Council decided to form a judicial high commission to look into the various types of crimes … and to try war criminals,” Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress, told Reuters.

“The United States has not declared until now what it’s going to do with the 55 (most wanted members of Saddam’s government). The Governing Council will take it upon itself to try them and to punish them according to law,” Qanbar added. “That includes Saddam Hussein, the biggest criminal.”

The Council, which represents a cross section of Iraq’s political and religious groups, also said it plans to send a delegation to the United Nations to show its legitimacy as a governing force as it attempts to transition Iraq toward democracy.

During a visit to the U.N., tentatively slated for next Tuesday, the delegation hopes to convince the international body to allow it to assume Iraq’s seat in the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly.

The Iraqi Council did not elect a leader as had been expected. However, it will begin filling Cabinet positions next week, said Fawzi Hariri, a spokesman the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

“Consultations will begin next week. It may not be that a whole government is formed at once, but ministries will be named, one after the other,” Hariri told The Associated Press.