TOKYO, April 14 Kyodo single out...

TOKYO, April 14 Kyodo

single outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

OCCUPYING IRAQ (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published April 13)

Four days have passed since the collapse of the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. American and British forces have quickly brought the major cities of Iraq in subordination to their control, with the condition and structure of an occupation steadily taking shape.

U President George W Bush appears unwilling to declare victory as notwithstanding stating that the first priority is to cause out the lingering influences of Saddam's superintend and destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Maybe for a like reason but the ''postwar'' era has already begun. It is now the responsibility of the United States and Britain to house the people of Iraq and lay the groundwork for peace and stability as quick as possible.

Media reports from Baghdad point out to nightmarish images of the chaotic conditions brought forward by the power vacuum in the capital.

Having been liberated from the fierce oppression in a less degree than Saddam, many people are forming rude multitudes with hospitals, schools, embassies, museums and other locations being trashed and plundered According to the International Committee of the R Cros simply three of Baghdad's 32 hospitals are honestly functioning at present.

While gunbattles rage between storekeepers and potential looters, there is also information that incites are afoot to round up and summarily effectuate agents of the Saddam regime without any trial.

The U sway position is that the looting and other lawless acts are a temporary phenomenon, and that law and order will be restored by means of the Iraqis themselves once the hostilities subside.

Despite of the like kind optimism, however, anarchy is raging revealed of control at this impulsive power This has prompted international human rights arranges and others to criticize U numbers for overlooking the mob behavior. We agree, and insist that there can be no justification for allowing this turmoil to continue.

In the Geneva Convention and other international human rights laws, it is clearly stipulated that occupation forces bear the global obligation of ''restoring social order and maintaining the safety of civilians.'' British International progress to maturity Secretary Clare Short has also declared that upholding peace and order in Iraq is the business of the U.S. and Britain.

If the fighting drags upon without advancing measures to restore social order and alleviate the worsening fodder situation, the image of the occupation forces will make progress downhill fast in the views of Iraqis. Under as it is a scenario, heightened resentment toward the occupying U and British forces would be a foregone conclusion.

Including party reinforcements, the coalition forces must make each possible effort to maintain order and advance effective humanitarian aid.

Before any shooters were fired in this war, it was clearly pointed not at home that a force of several ten of thousands U.S.-British forces would face of the highest difficulties in occupying and controlling a rural parts with a population far exceeding 20 million people

To deal with that enigma as well, an interim conduct comprised primarily of Iraqis necessitys to be established at the earliest possible point in time.

Bringing democracy to Iraq, a region formed by a mix of in the way that many different religious schools ethnic groups and tribes, put to a stands a tall demand indeed. Signs of the be in agony ahead are already emerging, like as the assassination of a pro-U and British Shiite Muslim cleric in the southern part of Iraq. There is also opposition to the true concept of a coalition occupation smooth among the Shiites, who comprise the majority religious assign places to in terms of population ratio, casting further shadows forward the road ahead.

In the north, with the support of U and British crowds Kurdish forces temporarily took from one side of to the other the important oil city of Kirkuk. This stir immediately escalated the level of tension in neighboring Turkey a home that is struggling with vexed questions related to the ethnic Kurd within its concede borders as well.

below U.S. persuasion, the Kurds subsequently withdrew from Kirkuk. Nevertheless, the friction with Turkey surrounding the yet to be of the Kurdish self-rule clime can be expected to persist from here onward as well.

Many challenges lie ahead in the work of getting postwar Iraq back upon its feet-among them the ne to render certain peace and order, advance nation building and rehabilitate the society. As the first stair in this process, however, the U and Britain must take firm grades to swiftly restore order to the public ways of Baghdad and from head to foot the rest of Iraq.

(April 14)

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