The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
“The
Australians, as the other troop contributing nation, have been
invited to join
the
day-after talks in Washington. We have spoken to their
representatives here in
London and
understand that they share our strong views on the desirability of
action
through the
UN.”
33.
Mr Chilcott
concluded:
“We have no
intention of surfacing this work. But if it leaks, we shall
emphasise that
it does not
imply any change of the policy objectives and that it is simply
prudent
contingency
planning.”
34.
The ‘Annotated
agenda/overarching paper’ attached to Mr Chilcott’s minute
stated
that
“strategic decisions on the issues in this paper are needed very
soon so that
planning
can proceed and a follow-up mechanism [be] agreed”.12
Issues were
organised
under five
headings:
•
Security
“An urgent
task will be to establish a
secure environment to
facilitate humanitarian
operations
and to provide the foundation for normal society to flourish
and
self‑sufficient
development to begin … We shall need quickly to provide
legitimate
and
transparent law and order and the necessary civil structures,
backed by the
Coalition
military, to deliver it. Ideally, the ordinary Iraqi police should
co-operate.
But will
they? And what is the basis of the law to be enforced – is it Iraqi
law or
something
else?
“We shall
also want to prevent internecine violence. Our handling of the
defeated
Iraqi
forces will be critical. We shall need a DDR [demobilisation,
demilitarisation and
re-integration]
plan for them, consistent with our vision for the future of Iraq’s
armed
forces
…”
•
Relief and
reconstruction
“The scale
of the challenge will depend on the extent of damage and
displacement
following
conflict and the extent of disruption to oil production … The
main
humanitarian
issues are:
(a) How
will the basic needs of the Iraqi people – food, medicine,
shelter,
power,
emergency reconstruction and protection/personal security –
be
met? …
Military
action will disrupt the involvement of expats and NGOs
in
the
distributions systems … We assume other UN agencies … and the
ICRC
[International
Committee of the Red Cross] would be best placed to cope
with
refugees,
although there may be a period when they cannot get access to
them.
How
advanced is US thinking on civil/military
co-operation?
12
Paper
Middle East Department, 15 January 2003, ‘Second Round of US-UK
talks, Washington:
22 January
2003’.
314