First Post-War Iraqi Government Sworn In
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In the ancient city of Babylon today, a U.S. commander hailed, and I'm quoting now "the dawning of a new age." And that wasn't the only ceremonial handoff that may well alter the course of post Saddam history. CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us now live from his post in Baghdad with more -- Ben?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, well today the first post war Iraqi government was sworn in. It was sworn in by the coalition appointed governing council. Now this 25 member government really does reflect the ethnic composition of this country, of the 25 ministers. 13 of them are Shi'ites, 5 Kurds 5 Sunni Arabs, one ethnic Turk and one Assyrian Christian. Now the final list of this government was reviewed by, and approved by L. Paul Bremer, the chief American administrator of the coalition provisional authority. Now it took quite some time for the governing council to really come up with a list they could all agree on. It was thought it would come up very quickly. It actually took them a month and a half to agree on their final list of candidates for these positions. However, the final authority in this country still lies with the U.S. led coalition -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Ben, what about the troop handover? The Polish contingent taking charge of a specific area, together with other countries involved? Tell our viewers a little bit about that?</s>WEDEMAN: Yes, this is a Polish led contingent of about 9,000 men. It's not, of course, just the Poles. It includes 20 other countries, including Nicaragua, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Tajikistan and Mongolia. So it really is quite a multinational force. They're taking over from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force over a five province area in south central Iraq. Now that area has been relatively quiet, but that quiet was violently shattered last Friday when that massive car bomb went off in Najaf, killing at least 83 people. So this contingent, this multinational contingent, isn't going to have quite as easy a brief at it originally looked -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: All right, Ben Wedeman in Baghdad, thanks very much, Ben. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com