THE fastest regime change in Iraqi history occurred at Baghdad airport yesterday when Paul Bremer, Washington’s new proconsul, took over running the country from Jay Garner, the much-criticised retired US Army general.

After less than a month in charge of the vast post- war reconstruction operation, General Garner and five top aides were eased out in a bloodless coup after failing to get government running in Iraq and to restore a semblance of normality to Baghdad.

“We intend to have a very effective, efficient and well- organised handover,” Mr Bremer, the US State Department’s former terrorism expert, declared at Baghdad’s international airport.

Although US officials insisted that the arrival of Mr Bremer, who will work alongside John Sawers, Tony Blair’s special envoy, was not a reflection on General Garner, the facts suggested otherwise.

Baghdad today is a city without essential utilities, law and order or a functioning government. Nor does there appear to be any detailed plan to curtail the anarchy and to restore basic public services. Arguably the situation, far from improving, is deteriorating, with potentially dangerous political consequences for the coalition.

Barbara Bodine, a former US Ambassador to Yemen who was supposed to run the Baghdad region, was among those returning home. At one recent meeting with the press, she was asked about the shooting of a dozen Iraqis by US troops in Fallujah, a town outside Baghdad and within her jurisdiction. It was clear from her answer that she was unaware of the incident, which was making headline news around the world.

Margaret Tutweiler, another senior US diplomat and for-mer State Department spokeswoman, was supposed to be in charge of communications, but repeatedly she refused to meet the media in Baghdad.

The most damning assessment of General Garner’s team comes from many Iraqis. Over the past three weeks, I was asked repeatedly: “Who is in charge?” Nobody had heard of their new leader.

Those who did meet him were underwhelmed by the grey-haired retired soldier, whose relaxed appearance did little to encourage the impression that he was the right man to run a country of 23 million people.

General Garner and his staff based themselves in Saddam’s former Republican Palace, where their campbeds and desks are arranged in a grand reception hall the size of a Gothic cathedral.

The headquarters is as detached from Baghdad life as was Saddam Hussein’s leadership when he was in power. It is not possible for ordinary Iraqis to meet members of their new government, to telephone them or to have any direct contact, other than with US Army soldiers guarding the gates. Without functioning telephones, television and other basic communications, there has been little contact between the civil administration and ordinary Iraqis. The only time that General Garner was sighted was when his armoured convoy raced through the city streets.

Government workers, most of whom are eager to return to work, have been unable to make contact with their new masters. Often they report to a gutted ministry building, sign up for work, return the next day and repeat the process without ever meeting a member of the new authority. Yesterday 300 Iraqi soldiers marched on General Garner’s headquarters in Baghdad to demand back pay and a role in the country’s future.

What normality has returned to Baghdad is due largely to the Iraqis themselves. Volunteers help to direct traffic. Merchants have reopened for business, but rely on their own weapons and gunmen for security. Hospitals and schools are running largely due to the dedication of unpaid staff.

Baghdad residents feel the utter absence of any strategy to get the city functioning again. Iraq has the Middle East’s second-largest oil reserves, but Iraqi motorists have to queue for as much as ten hours for petrol because only 40 per cent of the country’s energy needs are being met. Although normal levels are promised by the end of next month, in the meantime Iraq may have to import fuel from Kuwait and Turkey.

Although General Garner’s Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance promised to have normal electrical power running by now, it is at 40 per cent capacity and will take two months to be completely restored. Hospitals cannot function normally. Water treatment plants are at risk. Street lighting, vital to help to restore security, is impossible. As the blistering summer approaches, refrigeration and air conditioning are impossible.

General Garner’s failure on the technical level raised doubts about how he would handle the far more delicate and potentially explosive problem of Iraq’s political rehabilitation. After holding two rounds of meetings with political leaders, General Garner promised to form an interim Iraqi administration by the end of this month. But even members of his own staff are fearful that he would grant too much power to former exiled groups, such as the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, at the cost of local communities, particularly the majority Shia muslims and the once-dominant Sunnis.

Failure in the physical reconstruction of Iraq has caused resentment and grumbling, but nevertheless American forces are still enjoying something of a honeymoon among many Iraqis. Mishandling the political reconstruction could be far more serious. If any group feels excluded from power, it could trigger inter-communal conflict and even a violent uprising against the US-led government.

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