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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Abu Jaafar pulls out one of
the dozens of files piled on his desk and leafs
through evidence that a Finance Ministry employee
once served in Saddam Hussein's notorious
intelligence agency. Snapping the file shut, he
pronounces his verdict: ''This man should be
fired.''
The office in charge of removing senior members of
Saddam's Baath party from state institutions has
kicked back into gear under the new government made
up largely of Shiite Arabs and Kurds, who were
savagely repressed by the former regime.
Former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- a
secular Shiite and ex-Baathist -- was never a strong
supporter of the U.S.-imposed ban on hiring members
of the party, whose 35 years in power were some of
the darkest in Iraq's history.
Allawi argued that Iraq's new democratic
institutions need the expertise of those who served
the former regime, and reportedly brought many
Baathists back into government and the security
forces.
After the United States handed back sovereignty to
Iraqis last June, Allawi tried to shut down the
Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification,
but was overruled, according to the commission's
executive director, Ali al-Lami.
Work picked up again for al-Lami and his staff when
Iraq's new Shiite prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari,
started forming a government after the country's
first democratic parliamentary elections Jan. 30.
''After the elections ... it was agreed to
reactivate the process of removing Baath party
members from state institutions,'' al-Lami told The
Associated Press in an interview.
Parliament set up a 12-member committee Sunday to
oversee the commission's work.
U.S. officials have cautioned against a wholesale
purge of Iraq's government and security forces at a
time when they face an increasingly complex and
deadly insurgency, warning it could further
antagonize the disaffected Sunni Arab minority
believed to be driving the insurgency.
But al-Lami said the ban applies only to those who
served in the party's upper echelons -- an estimated
65,000 people.
The United States dissolved and banned the Baath
party in May 2003, a month after toppling Saddam,
but later softened its stance, inviting former
high-level officers from the disbanded military to
join the security forces. The former top U.S.
administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, also allowed
thousands of teachers who were Baathists to return
to work.
Some 35,000 senior Baathists lost their jobs in the
eight months after the policy took effect, but
16,000 of them appealed and returned to their posts,
al-Lami said.
The tough stance adopted by Shiite leaders and their
Kurdish allies against those with ties to Saddam's
regime was one of the main issues that held up
formation of al-Jaafari's government until April 28.
Al-Jaafari asked representatives of Iraq's major
ethnic and religious groups to submit candidates for
his Cabinet. But many of the names -- particularly
those from the Sunni minority that dominated under
Saddam -- were sent to the de-Baathification
commission for vetting.
Sunni hard-liners say the ban was used to reject
most of their candidates, and the new government's
most senior Sunni member, Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer,
skipped the swearing-in ceremony in protest.
In the end, seven Sunnis joined the Cabinet, but al-Jaafari's
choice for human rights minister turned down the
job, saying he didn't want to be a token appointee.
An estimated 1.5 million of Iraq's 26 million people
belonged to the Baath party -- formally known as the
Baath Arab Socialist Party -- at the time of
Saddam's fall, but most say they joined for
practical reasons. Membership was needed for career
advancement, to secure places at prestigious
colleges, or to get specialized medical care.
However, those who advanced in the party were
expected to spy on fellow Iraqis and to join
militias that were accused of helping suppress
Shiite and Kurdish revolts after Iraq's defeat in
the 1991 Gulf War and participating in mass killings
of Shiites and Kurds. Former army Col. Yassin Taher,
a Shiite, said he was aware of the atrocities but
joined the party to advance his military career. He
was booted out of the army shortly after Saddam's
fall because of his senior party position, but says
he has much to offer his country.
''I had a battalion that wasn't that good but I
turned it into the best battalion,'' said Taher, who
now sells mattresses. ''I strongly believe that if
they take me back into the army they will benefit
from my experience.''
The commission's head, former Pentagon favorite and
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, has little
sympathy for such arguments.
''We need leadership, and it doesn't come by
reinstituting Baathists and Saddam loyalists into
the service. This has been done too much under the
previous government,'' Chalabi told CNN. ''We need
to have people lead the forces who are loyal to the
new order, who are loyal to the democratic
government of Iraq.''
AP
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