Peru

Late in the month, there were strikes and protests by public sector workers and others demanding better pay and working conditions. On the 27th, President Alejandro Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency (Reuters).

1 MAY 2003

Iraq

President Bush said that major combat operations in the country were over. US forces had advanced rapidly from Kuwait to Baghdad in about three weeks, and Saddam Hussein's regime had fled, disappearing into the populace. Many of its senior members were found in the coming weeks and months.

Coalition casualties were very light. According to the DOD 138 Americans had died from all causes from 19 March to 1 May.1 Probably about 11,000-15,000 Iraqis were killed during the invasion, with about 30% of those being non-combatants.2

Venezuela

Tens of thousands were involved in pro- and anti-Chavez demonstrations in Caracas. There was some violence (Reuters).

Japan

Hundreds of thousands joined in May Day demonstrations (Reuters).

Europe

There were numerous, but mostly small, May Day protests across the region (Reuters).

2 MAY 2003

China

The official Xinhua news agency said the navy had lost one of its conventionally-powered submarines in territorial waters off the northeastern coast. The accident had claimed the lives of all 70 officers and men aboard (Reuters).

3 MAY 2003

Spain, Civil Affairs

The Supreme Court banned hundreds of candidates from standing in municipal elections in the Basque country this month on the grounds that they are members of the outlawed Batasuna party (Reuters).

5 MAY 2003

Pakistan, Military Affairs

Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan, apparently referring to nuclear weapons, said, "If India is ready to de-nuclearize, we would be very happy to de-nuclearize" (Reuters).

Colombia

Antioquia province governor Guillermo Gaviria and former defense minister Gilberto Echeverri were executed by their FARC captors (Reuters).

6 MAY 2003

Liberia

Sam Bockarie, a notorious West African warlord, reportedly was killed in a shootout with government troops after crossing the border from Ivory Coast (Reuters).

10 MAY 2003

Philippines

A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people in Koronadal on Mindanao island. The Abu Sayyaf rebels claimed responsibility.

The government had recently halted peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels (Reuters).

10-11 MAY 2003

Lithuania, Foreign Policy

In a referendum on EU membership, 91% voted in favor. Turnout was about 64% (Reuters).

11 MAY 2003

Serbia and Montenegro, Politics

Montenegro held a presidential election. Filip Vujanovic got over 63% of the vote; Miodrag Zivkovic received about 31% (Reuters).

Iraq

US General Tommy Franks, in a message read in Arabic on the US-run Information Radio broadcasting in Iraq, said, "The Baath Socialist Party is dissolved....Anyone who possesses documents related to the Baath Party or the Iraqi government must maintain and protect them and hand these documents to the coalition." The US-led civilian administration had recently asked that senior employees at various ministries sign a document denouncing the party (Reuters).

12 MAY 2003

Saudi Arabia

Shortly before midnight, suicide bombers forced their way into three guarded housing compounds for foreign nationals in Riyadh and set off car bombs. Thirty-five people were killed, including at least seven Americans and 12 attackers. The death toll could have been higher except for the fact that many of the residents, employees of a US military contractor, were out on an exercise with the Saudi military (Reuters).

14 MAY 2003

Diplomatic Affairs

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun met US President Bush in Washington. A joint statement released afterwards said the two countries would "not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea" and were confident they could achieve a peaceful resolution of the issue. The statement also said that any redeployment of US ground forces in South Korea "should be pursued taking careful account of the political, economic and security situation on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia" (Reuters).

15 MAY 2003

Israel, Gaza Strip

Israeli forces raided Beit Hanoun.

Around this time, Saeb Erekat resigned from PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas' cabinet (Reuters).

16 MAY 2003

Morocco

Suicide bombers carried out five nearly simultaneous attacks in Casablanca, killing 33 people. Some of the targets were Jewish-related. Authorities later said 12 suicide bombers died in the operation and that a small Islamic group, Assirat al Moustaquim, was responsible (Reuters, CNN.com).

16-17 MAY 2003

Slovakia, Foreign Policy

There was a referendum on entry into the EU. The SITA news agency reported accession approval at 92.5% and turnout at 52.2% (Reuters).

17 MAY 2003

Israel

Prime Minister Sharon met PA prime minister Abbas (Reuters).

18 MAY 2003

Indonesia

President Megawati Sukarnoputri placed Aceh province under martial law. Her decree runs for six months, but can be extended. Major General Endang Suwarya is now in charge of Aceh.

The same day, Suwarya began a major new offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels. The GAM has demanded independence for Aceh. The two sides had been negotiating for the last several months over the future status of the province. Suwarya has over 45,000 military and police personnel in Aceh; the GAM's strength is estimated at about 5,000 (Reuters).

Belgium, Politics

The ruling Liberals and Socialists won general elections. The anti-immigration Vlaams Blok won the largest vote in its 25-year history (Reuters).

Israel, West Bank

Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem that killed seven (Reuters).

19 MAY 2003

Lebanon

In the Ain el-Hilweh refuge camp there were clashes between Islamists and Fatah fighters (Reuters).

Israel

A suicide bomber killed three people in Afula (Reuters).

20 MAY 2003

Democratic Republic of Congo

The last of the four new vice-presidents to lead the transitional government was named (see 2 April). Z'ahidi Ngoma was named to represent the political opposition. The others are Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi for the government, Ugandan-backed MLC rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba and Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel leader Azarias Ruberwa (Reuters).

21 MAY 2003

Algeria

There was an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter near Rouiba, about 20 miles east of Algiers. Over 2,000 people were killed, and a great deal of destruction was caused. Tens of thousands were left homeless. Many buildings performed poorly under earthquake conditions (Reuters).

22 MAY 2003

Iraq

The UN Security Council lifted economic sanctions on the country. Oil revenues were to go into a new Iraqi Development Fund, controlled by the US and Britain and overseen by an international board. The resolution exempted Iraqi oil revenues from claims by foreign creditors until an internationally recognized Iraqi government was established (Reuters).

23 MAY 2003

Iraq

In a move which surprised many and would prove to be controversial, CPA head Paul Bremer issued a decree disbanding the Iraqi army and canceling pensions. This was a Pentagon decision which was opposed by many in the field, including General Franks.3 This was followed soon after by the decision not to keep the national police force in being. These decisions were motivated by concerns about perpetuating Ba'athist power and concern over human rights violations by the police.4

Many observers have considered these moves to be mistakes which made it more difficult to restore security in the country. According to Nicholas Reynolds, the “predictable result” of both the disbandment of the army and a policy limiting the number and types of weapons Iraqis could possess “was an upswing in violence against coalition forces, especially in the area west of Baghdad around Ar Ramadi and Fallujah...” 5 While much of the criticism of how the Iraqi army and police were handled after the invasion is probably deserved, it should be remembered that to a large degree the Iraqi security forces dissolved during the invasion. David Hendrickson and Robert Tucker have pointed out that even if the American occupiers had not disbanded these forces, they would have required major reconstitution and their reliability as implements of US Iraq policy would have been questionable.6

In a sense, the question about what should have been done with Iraqi security institutions after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein cannot be separated from the larger question of what should, or should not, have been done with the Iraqi political system after Hussein. Since the US did not immediately withdraw its forces and allow the existing political system to continue with some other Ba'athist leader or with an embarrassed Hussein, but instead settled into an occupation of the country and embarked on a reconstitution of the political system, it probably would have been unreasonable for anyone to expect the Iraqi security forces to continue in their current form; there is little historical precedent for such a continuation of existing forces under occupation by a foreign power.

Diplomatic Affairs

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with US President Bush in Crawford, Texas. Afterwards, they warned North Korea against further advancing its nuclear weapon development program. Bush said, "We will not settle for anything less than complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program." Both leaders said they believed a peaceful solution was possible (Reuters).

24 MAY 2003

Venezuela

A small anti-Chavez rally held in west Caracas was attacked by Chavez supporters (Reuters).

25 MAY 2003

Israel

The cabinet formally approved of the US-backed 'road map' as a basis for negotiations with the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has already accepted it. The plan calls for reciprocal steps toward a Palestinian state by 2005. It is based on a speech by US President Bush in June 2002 (Reuters).

27 MAY 2003

Asia and the Pacific, Diplomatic Affairs

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. In a joint statement they said, "The sides are in favor of guaranteeing the non-nuclear status of the Korean peninsula and for the observation there of a regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." They also said that North Korea's security had to be guaranteed and that "favorable conditions should be created for its social-economic development." They also discussed Iraq, SARS and energy cooperation (Reuters).

28 MAY 2003

Argentina, Military Affairs

President Nestor Kirchmen replaced army chief General Ricardo Brinzoni with General Roberto Bendini (Reuters).

29 MAY 2003

Israel

Prime Minister Sharon met PA prime minister Abbas in Jerusalem (Reuters).

30 MAY 2003

Democratic Republic of Congo

The UN Security Council authorized a French-led 1,400-strong peacekeeping force for the troubled Ituri region in the northeast. The French are to stay until relieved by a UN force on 1 September (Reuters).

31 MAY 2003

Myanmar, Civil Affairs

The government said it had taken political activist Aung San Suu Kyi into "protective custody" the previous day (Reuters).

Notes

1. Todd S. Purdum, A Time of Our Choosing: America's War in Iraq, New York, Times Books, 2003, p. 250.

2. See the excellent study by Carl Conetta, The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 2003 Conflict, Project on Defense Alternatives Research Monograph #8, www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8.html, 20 October 2003; see also Purdum, A Time of Our Choosing, p. 235. I have seen The Wages of War misquoted in a couple of places as to estimated Iraqi combatant deaths because the user noted only the report's estimate of observed deaths and ignored the rest of the discussion pertaining to unobserved deaths and the final estimates.

3. Col. Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR (Ret.), Basrah, Baghdad and Beyond: The U.S. Marine Corps in the Second Iraq War, Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2005, pp. 151, 257.

4. John Keegan, The Iraq War, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 , p. 205.

5. Reynolds, Basrah, Baghdad and Beyond, p. 151.

6. David C. Hendrickson and Robert W. Tucker, Revisions in Need of Revising: What Went Wrong in the Iraq War, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, December 2005, pp. 18-20.