The huge demonstration in Nasiriyah o­n April 14 against the US-brokered talks o­n a post-Saddam administration and the protests in Mosul and Baghdad are manifestations of a general uneasiness among the people with the American occupation of Iraq.

Assurances from American officials that the US has no desire to rule Iraq and that it wants the 'the Iraqis to rule themselves' will not convince the Iraqis of the imperial power's 'noble intentions'. For they know that even if Iraqis are in the seat of formal authority, real power will be exercised by Washington. To put it simply, the Iraqi people do not want a puppet government in Baghdad.

Since there is no credible government-in-waiting to fill the power vacuum in Baghdad, Washington should give its wholehearted support to the o­nly sane, sensible alternative available at this point in time: the establishment of an interim United Nations administration with wide-ranging powers which will inter alia perform the following functions:

1) Restore law and order and maintain the peace.

2) Restore public utilities - especially water and electricity - and essential public services immediately.

3) Put into place a skeletal civil administration which would cover all the regions and cities of Iraq.

4) Create a mechanism which will facilitate the management of Iraqi oil and the proper utilisation of oil revenues.

5) Convene within a period of three months or so a people's assembly which will include all political groups in the country without exception to deliberate upon the future constitution, structure and system of government and political direction of Iraq. There should be no attempt to impose any particular political or economic model upon the people of Iraq. The Iraqis themselves should be allowed to determine the form of government and the type of public policies that they prefer.

The idea of an interim UN administration has the support of most countries including almost all of Iraq's neighbours. Nearly all the major civil society groups that were opposed to the invasion of Iraq also want the UN to play a pivotal role in the political administration and economic management of Iraq.

Needless to say, UN leadership for them means the UN exercising total authority o­n all matters of governance - and not some superpower or its allies manipulating key decisions from behind the scenes. Neither do civil society groups want to see the UN play a restricted role as a sort of humanitarian aid-dispensing agency.

Washington should realise that it is in its own interest to get out of Iraq and allow the UN to assume temporary authority until a broad based government of Iraqis by Iraqis and for Iraqis is elected o­n the basis of o­ne citizen o­ne vote at the end of perhaps a two-year period. Otherwise, opposition to Washington's occupation will grow rapidly. For the o­ne slogan that has captured the popular imagination in the last few days throughout Iraq is: no to Saddam; no to America!