Iraqi Sovereignity Was Handed Over Two Days Early

The transfer of sovereignty in Iraq was accomplished surprisingly on June 28, which is two days earlier than the originally scheduled date of June 30.

It is assessed that in order to avoid an attempted all-out offensive by Iraqi insurgents targeting the day of the sovereignty transfer, and solve the confusion with the Iraqi transitional government taking initiatives in the foreground, an early transfer has been carried out.

However, the future of Iraq still remains obscure while the radical insurgents has kidnapped and threatened to kill additional five foreign hostages from the United States, Turkey, and Pakistan for recent two days.

At 10:26 a.m. on June 28 (local time), Paul Bremer, the chief administrative officer of the U.S. military transitional government in Iraq handed over the legal documents related to the sovereignty transfer to the Prime Minister of the Iraqi transitional government, Ayad Allawi, in the green zone of central Baghdad where the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is located.

This day’s sovereignty transfer ceremony, which was carried out all of a sudden, was held in a brief manner with six people present, including the President of the transitional government, Al-Yawar.

“We will leave Iraq, fully convinced of the future of Iraq,” said Bremer.

Prime Minister Allawi stated “Today is a historic day,” adding, “According to the ardent wishes of the Iraqi people to control their fate by themselves, we’ve required an early transfer of sovereignty.”

However, the terrorist organization, Al-tawhid wal Jihad, which stands for God and holy war in English, that kidnapped and murdered the Korean, Kim Sun-il, has abducted three Turkish hostages and disclosed another videotape on June 26; the terrorist organization “Islamic Revenge Movement” has revealed that they kidnapped a U.S. marine on June 27; and an unidentified terrorist organization has disclosed videotape that includes footage of one abducted Pakistani who works for the American contractor Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR). All three threatened to kill their hostages unless the U.S. releases Iraqi prisoners.

As the aggressive acts of armed insurgents have heated up, six soldiers of the Iraqi Defense Forces were killed on June 27 because of an anti-tank rocket attack targeted at their checkpoint located in northeastern Baghdad.

Jin Lee Hyung-June Park leej@donga.com lovesong@donga.com