Today Ukraine’s Minister for Defense Yevhen Marchuk will arrive in Iraq where 1656 Ukrainian military men were sent on a peacekeeping mission in mid-August. This is the first visit of Ukraine’s official representative to the postwar country. Minister Marchuk started his trip yesterday in Kuwait, where a number of meetings were planned with the country’s leaders. Recall that during the military campaign against Saddam Hussein Ukraine sent an RCD battalion to Kuwait, which was later redeployed in Iraq.
After Kuwait the minister will go to Baghdad where he is to meet commander of the coalition forces in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez and Ramiro Lopez da Silva, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the country. Also, according to the Ministry for Defense press service information, a meeting between Minister of Defense Marchuk and Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Polish Minister of Defense, is scheduled for today. Heads of the two countries’ military authorities are to discuss the peacekeeping regiments’ coordination in carrying out their tasks as parts of the Central South Polish multinational division.
Yevhen Marchuk will stay in Iraq until September 4. The main goal of his visit is testing the Ukrainian military’s preparedness for carrying out their tasks. In addition to patrolling towns in the North and South Wasit province and road control at the highways to Baghdad, their responsibilities include guarding the Iran border. The Ukrainian military contingent in Iraq has reported the results of their stay in Iraq earlier. In part, the Ukrainians arrested several armed Iraqis and illegal migrants at the Iran border (see more on p. 3). At that time the American command had not yet officially passed to the Ukrainians authority in the province. This is to take place tomorrow. Yevhen Marchuk and Jerzy Szmajdzinski will visit the Babylon military camp and take part in a solemn ceremony of tranferring the responsibility zone to Ukraine’s peacekeepers. The same day Minister Marchuk will visit the Ukrainian contingent. He also plans a meeting with representatives of the local self-government and clergy of Wasit province, The Day was told at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s press service.
Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq is still uneasy. As a result of an act of terrorism in Najaf last Friday 125 persons were killed and almost 200 wounded. Najaf is a part of Poland’s zone of responsibility. The death toll of so many people among whom was the Iraqi Shiites spiritual leader, has spurred the Americans to take decisive actions. In part, it was decided yesterday to send FBI investigators to Iraq to study possible connections between the Najaf incident, an explosion near the UN Representation in Baghdad two weeks ago, and an act of terrorism near the Jordanian Embassy on August 7. All three cases are connected to the activity of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s supporters. Incidentally, yesterday, according to Al-Jazeera information, he denied his connection with the recent explosions.
The Najaf act of terrorism could prevent the transfer of authority in certain zones of responsibility from the US to Poland. The Associated Press reported yesterday that the American command decided to postpone passing control of the Najaf region to the Polish military until some undetermined date. “We now want to stay here and assist as much as possible,” Major Rick Hall, spokesman for the US First Battalion, stated. Will this affect the terms for passing responsibility to Ukraine’s peacekeepers? Our Defense Ministry press service referred to the approved schedule of Minister Marchuk’s visit and confirmed that the ceremony is to be held tomorrow.
