Quickly, lessons in democracy

RUTBAH, Iraq -- This desert outpost is scheduled to choose a new city council in a caucus next week, a crucial first step in the process taking place in towns across Iraq to give residents a say in selecting an interim national government in June.

Yet it wasn't until last week that Rutbah's townspeople -- novices at running democratic proceedings -- received their first visit from the people the United States hired to coach them through that process, a private company with a $167 million contract to foster representative local government in Iraq.

After two hours, Iraqi and American advisers from Research Triangle Institute rolled away in the US Army convoy that brought them, leaving questions in their wake: Would the mayor invite a broadly representative group to the caucus, or just his friends? Did average citizens understand they could play a role? Was two weeks enough notice to attract widespread participation?

"My concern is we're really rushing to failure here. We're time-driven, not event-driven," Lieutenant Colonel David Teeples, commander of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, told representatives of Research Triangle Institute and the Coalition Provisional Authority at a meeting before their Rutbah trip. He expressed concern that the process had not started earlier in the large area of western Iraq that his regiment controls.

"If we don't get it right now, it won't get right in June," he said.

The US plan to form a government acceptable to Iraqis sets a March 1 deadline for towns across the country to choose a pyramid of representatives topped by provincial councils, which will help elect a transitional assembly.

Ahmed Hameed al Qubaisi, 47, an agricultural official in Rutbah, liked the concept: "The reservoir of power will flow up instead of down. It's better. But will it work in practice?" He shrugged.

There is no more important task for US occupation authorities seeking to stabilize Iraq than convincing Iraqis that the government that takes charge in June is their legitimate representative, even though it will not be chosen through direct elections.

The mission became more urgent over the weekend, as Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most respected leader among Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims, reiterated his demand for direct elections to the interim government.

The bottom-up process that is supposed to get the caucuses to that point is farthest from completion in areas where antioccupation sentiment is strongest, said Peter Benedict, head of the Iraqi project for the Research Triangle Institute, a North Carolina nonprofit organization that provides training for social development. He said security constraints have slowed efforts to network with local communities.

By March 1, Iraq's 18 provinces, called governorates, are due to set up provincial councils. Eleven of the 18 have finalized their councils and are moving ahead with numerous town meetings and events to get Iraqis talking about their role in the transition to sovereignty, Benedict said.

But he said the remaining seven include three restive Sunni Triangle provinces where it is especially critical to get people to buy into the new government: Diyala, whose capital is Baqubah; Salahuddin, which includes Tikrit and Samarra; and Anbar, which includes Rutbah as well as Ramadi and Fallujah.

He expects all provincial councils to be ready to start work by March, but worries that security may hamper efforts to "fuel a process of fair selection . . . involving people from all walks of life. If it's hard to get around and organize, it might not be as broad-based as we would like."

The institute's original plan -- a long, gradual process of educating Iraqis about democracy, culminating in elections -- had to be revised after Nov. 15, when the coalition authority and the Iraqi Governing Council shortened the timetable for restoring Iraqi sovereignty, mandating that a transitional assembly be in place by June 30.

With no voter rolls or census data, US officials say there is no fair way to hold direct elections by then. So they laid out a complex caucus system. Under the current plan, caucuses in each province will be organized by a committee of 15 people; five chosen by the provincial council, five by the US-appointed Governing Council, and five by councils from the province's largest towns. Those 15 people will choose a larger group that will elect the province's delegates to the national assembly.

But before that, US officials want to give more Iraqis a stake in the councils. That means holding local caucuses to replace or expand the local councils that US military commanders appointed when they first arrived -- one of the tasks Research Triangle Institute representatives had in mind on their trip to Rutbah.

Now, the coalition authority wants the councils to reflect a broader range of social groups, such as professionals and women, and not just tribal sheiks.

Vassil Yanco, the institute's representative in Anbar, said he was only now making it to western towns like Rutbah to facilitate these caucuses because he spent the past two months working to set up councils in the province's largest cities, Fallujah and Ramadi. In addition, the institute has less staff in these areas because of security concerns.

Yanco's trip to Rutbah and several other western towns last week illustrated the logistical and political difficulties of his task.

To reach Rutbah, Yanco, an Iraqi-born American citizen, and two Iraqi colleagues drove to the US base at Asad.

The next day, they flew 90 minutes in a Black Hawk helicopter to Forward Operating Base Byers. The team wanted Rutbah to hold a 100-member public caucus that would choose a new local council and two delegates to the provincial council. They knew little about local politics in the town of 7,000, known as a smugglers' hub.

The US-appointed mayor, Ali Hussein al-Qubaisi, was reluctant to share power, soldiers said. If he organized the caucus, "the larger population as a whole probably wouldn't even know it happened," but would passively accept it, said one officer.

Yanco's team traveled to Rutbah's youth center, nearly an hour's drive from the base, in a convoy of a dozen Humvees backed up by tanks. The last leg was a winding, off-road jaunt to avoid roadside bombs.

About three dozen city administrators sat on worn sofas in the town's youth center. The three-member city council -- largely inactive since November, when a bomb went off at the mayor's office where they met -- sat in back and asked no questions.

A young Iraqi working for the institute gave an impassioned speech on the workings of council subcommittees and public meetings.

But afterwards, locals were unclear on their connection to the process. Jassem Mohammad Raja, head of the youth center, said he didn't think he had a right to participate, saying the mayor would pick the delegates.

Because troops bundled Yanco back into the convoy after the meeting, he had little time to chat -- an essential ritual in a country where much is decided through conversation and personal relationships. The mayor agreed to hold the caucus when Yanco returned in a week or so, and said two days' notice would be enough time to organize it.

A meeting in the town of Haditha, two days later, sparked more enthusiasm and debate. Mayor Hawash Khalaf Muteb and many council members endorsed the idea of "refreshing" local councils, launching into a lively debate.

"The situation is too unstable," for new elections, said Sattar Yusef Ferghib, a member of the Barwana district council. But his colleague, Khazi Mutar al Dulaimi, disagreed. "The council should be chosen by the people," he said.