Iraqis want US to be gone

2004-06-17 08:49

Washington - More than nine out of 10 Iraqis consider US-led forces as occupiers, and a strong majority think their country would be safer if the coalition forces left, according to a poll commissioned by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

The conclusions of the poll indicate Iraqis' confidence in the bodies put in place by US forces after the fall of Saddam Hussein has seriously eroded.

The poll of 1 097 persons taken between May 14 and 23 - after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal - showed that only 11% had confidence in the CPA, down from 47% last November.

Only 10% of those asked said they had confidence in the mostly US coalition troops, 92% saw the troops as "occupiers," three percent as "peacekeepers" and two percent as "liberators."

Fifty-five percent said they would feel safer if the coalition forces left the country immediately and 32% said they would not.

Forty-one percent wanted the troops out immediately, but 45% wanted them to stay until the election of a permanent government, slated for sometime next year.

The installation of a temporary government on July 1 will improve the situation, thought 63% of those polled, while 15% said it would make it worse.

With continued violence, security was a priority for most Iraqis; 59% said it was number one, ahead of the economy (16%) and infrastructure (15%).

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was the most popular Iraqi personality, with 81% of those asked saying their opinion of him was either "much better" or "better" than it was three months earlier. But only two percent wanted him as president of Iraq.

Seventy-one percent of those polled said they were surprised by the Abu Ghraib scandal and 22% said they were not. Fifty-four percent thought all Americans bore responsibility for the abuse along with the US troops, and 61% thought nobody would be punished.

The poll was taken in Iraq's six largest cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1%.

- AFP