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CNN Live At Daybreak

Jay Garner Goes to Northern Iraq

Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As the new Iraq continues to emerge, there are several developments to tell you about this morning, so let's go straight to CNN's Rula Amin in Baghdad for the latest -- good morning, Rula.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The latest is that Jay Garner, the man in charge of running Iraq now, went to the northern part of the country. He went to Sulaymaniyah. This is a place where it was administered by the Iraqi Kurds even during Saddam Hussein's rule. And it was not his first time there. Jay Garner was there leading the U.S. forces in 1991 when they went there in Operation Provide Comfort. That is when Saddam Hussein crushed the rebellion, the Kurdish rebellion there in 1991.

Garner went there to provide and deliver humanitarian aid.

This is part of a four day visit to Iraq. He started yesterday in Baghdad and he had started it with a tour of the capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMIN (voice-over): This is the man in charge of running Iraq. General Garner's first stop was Al-Yarmuk Hospital. The looters were there before him. Garner was faced with the reality, a hospital without enough power and little clean running water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Centralized, a very, very centralized system.

AMIN: This was a state-owned, state-run hospital. Now, there is no government in Iraq. There is no one to buy medical equipment to replace what the looters took and no one to pay the staffers' salaries. The hospital staff had a long list of demands and complaints.

"His words don't do much to me," says one staffer. "I need to see things change on the ground."

"We have no work. How can we buy our bread?" says another staffer. "This is not liberation, this is occupation. And how come they can only protect the oil ministry and the oil facilities?"

Garner promised to help, but said he will need time. How much time he wouldn't say. "As long as it takes," he insists.

GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.): I don't have a timetable for anything. We'll do everything as fast as we can and we'll do it as well as we can. I'll tell you my impression. As I walked in here, I walked into the health clinic and I saw Dr. Burcho (ph) and some of his people there working with the doctors. And the doctors were clearly capable there of doing things themselves. All they needed was the equipment to do it.

And I walked in here and I saw the Iraqi engineers who are incredibly competent doing that with some assistance from U.S. engineers. But, again, all they needed was just equipment to help them.

AMIN: Garner is in charge here until a new interim government is in place. He will oversee the reconstruction of Iraq and the delivery of foreign aid to Iraqis. And he needs the help of the old Iraqi bureaucracy and new blood. Hundreds of Iraqis are already lining up. They fill in their names and their qualifications. Then they are searched before they are bussed to go inside one of the former presidential palaces to be interviewed.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, other Iraqis were on the streets for a completely different reason -- to demand U.S. troops leave Iraq immediately. They want to run their own affairs now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMIN: Now, in the northern part of the country, Garner got a more warmer welcome. Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders, offered him to come back to Kurdistan when he retires to stay there. This is the best time in Kurdistan. It's spring and the weather is lovely. Garner had also good news for the Kurds. He told them he believed that the time has come for the Kurds -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Rula Amin live from Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As the new Iraq continues to emerge, there are several developments to tell you about this morning, so let's go straight to CNN's Rula Amin in Baghdad for the latest -- good morning, Rula.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The latest is that Jay Garner, the man in charge of running Iraq now, went to the northern part of the country. He went to Sulaymaniyah. This is a place where it was administered by the Iraqi Kurds even during Saddam Hussein's rule. And it was not his first time there. Jay Garner was there leading the U.S. forces in 1991 when they went there in Operation Provide Comfort. That is when Saddam Hussein crushed the rebellion, the Kurdish rebellion there in 1991.

Garner went there to provide and deliver humanitarian aid.

This is part of a four day visit to Iraq. He started yesterday in Baghdad and he had started it with a tour of the capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMIN (voice-over): This is the man in charge of running Iraq. General Garner's first stop was Al-Yarmuk Hospital. The looters were there before him. Garner was faced with the reality, a hospital without enough power and little clean running water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Centralized, a very, very centralized system.

AMIN: This was a state-owned, state-run hospital. Now, there is no government in Iraq. There is no one to buy medical equipment to replace what the looters took and no one to pay the staffers' salaries. The hospital staff had a long list of demands and complaints.

"His words don't do much to me," says one staffer. "I need to see things change on the ground."

"We have no work. How can we buy our bread?" says another staffer. "This is not liberation, this is occupation. And how come they can only protect the oil ministry and the oil facilities?"

Garner promised to help, but said he will need time. How much time he wouldn't say. "As long as it takes," he insists.

GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.): I don't have a timetable for anything. We'll do everything as fast as we can and we'll do it as well as we can. I'll tell you my impression. As I walked in here, I walked into the health clinic and I saw Dr. Burcho (ph) and some of his people there working with the doctors. And the doctors were clearly capable there of doing things themselves. All they needed was the equipment to do it.

And I walked in here and I saw the Iraqi engineers who are incredibly competent doing that with some assistance from U.S. engineers. But, again, all they needed was just equipment to help them.

AMIN: Garner is in charge here until a new interim government is in place. He will oversee the reconstruction of Iraq and the delivery of foreign aid to Iraqis. And he needs the help of the old Iraqi bureaucracy and new blood. Hundreds of Iraqis are already lining up. They fill in their names and their qualifications. Then they are searched before they are bussed to go inside one of the former presidential palaces to be interviewed.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, other Iraqis were on the streets for a completely different reason -- to demand U.S. troops leave Iraq immediately. They want to run their own affairs now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMIN: Now, in the northern part of the country, Garner got a more warmer welcome. Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders, offered him to come back to Kurdistan when he retires to stay there. This is the best time in Kurdistan. It's spring and the weather is lovely. Garner had also good news for the Kurds. He told them he believed that the time has come for the Kurds -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Rula Amin live from Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com