BASRA: Basra city leaders vowed yesterday not to cooperate with British forces until they received an apology and compensation for a late-night raid by British troops that freed two detained soldiers.
The governor of Iraq’s second largest city said a unanimous decision had been taken at a provincial council meeting late on Wednesday and it was now up to British forces to make a move to end the dispute that has fuelled anger towards foreign troops.
“The governing council ... decided to stop all cooperation with the British until they meet three demands,” Governor Mohammed Al Waili said.
“To apologise for what happened, to guarantee that it does not happen again, and third, to provide some compensation for all the damage they did during the operation,” he said, referring to the crushing of jail walls by armoured vehicles.
Waili said he expected the governing council to meet British military officials on today or tomorrow. Stewart Innes, an official with Britain’s consulate in Basra, confirmed negotiations were planned but did not say for when.
“We will enter negotiations with the (governing council) in order to reach a solution to our problems,” he told reporters.
But Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on his return to Baghdad  from talks in London that the incidents in Basra did not constitute  “an unsurmountable obstacle” to good relations between the two  countries.
A joint British-Iraqi probe will be held into the incidents,  Jaafari said. Highlighting a gap between the central government and the  authorities in the southern port city, he said: “We must use this mistake to our advantage, determine its nature and who is  responsible. “We will endeavour not to have it repeated.”
British troops, meanwhile, confined themselves to their barracks in and around Basra, lowering their profile in an effort to defuse tensions caused by Monday’s raid.
Basra residents said British forces were nowhere to be seen on the city’s streets, whereas they would normally be involved in daily joint patrols with the Iraqi police and military.
The rescue of the two soldiers provoked anti-British protests in Basra on Wednesday. The two men were working undercover when they were approached by Iraqi police, and fired on the police before being arrested.             – Agencies
Last update on: 23-9-2005