WP: For Anbar's Rookie Governor, It's One Tough Day at a Time

[maddezmom]

Region's Pacification Is Key to Iraq's Future, U.S. Officials Say

By Jonathan Finer and Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 30, 2005; Page A14

RAMADI, Iraq -- In a country where the life expectancy of public servants can be short, Mamoun Sami Rashid's four-week tenure as governor of Anbar province counts as beating the odds.

The man he replaced as the head of this volatile district was kidnapped 11 days after taking office in early May and died in captivity later that month. Another governor resigned in January after insurgents abducted three of his sons and demanded he step down.


The week that Rashid became governor, gunmen showed up at his home on the outskirts of Ramadi, only to be chased away by his security detail. "Of course I hesitated when I first thought of being governor. It is not the safest job," Rashid, 48, a blunt former civil engineer, said in an interview. "But I depend on two things: the protection of God and the acceptance of the people of Anbar. The work that we do will convince people that we are on the right track."

One year ago, Iraq's U.S.-led occupation authority handed a measure of sovereignty back to Iraqi leaders. Officials in Baghdad and in the provinces gained some political authority and have struggled, with varying degrees of success, to make the idea of self-governance a reality.

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