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Iraq to restore former Baath party
followers
13.1.2008
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January 13 2008
BAGHDAD, -- Iraq's parliament voted Saturday
to allow some former members of Saddam Hussein's
Baath Party to reclaim government jobs and said
others could receive pensions but could not return
to work. President Bush said the legislation was "an
important step toward reconciliation."
The long-delayed bill is the first of several major
changes in Iraqi law sought by the Bush
administration with the goal of easing ethnic and
religious tensions. The 275-seat parliament is still
deadlocked over how to share the country's oil
profits, constitutional amendments demanded by
minority Sunni Arabs, and a bill spelling out rules
for local elections.
The bill, approved Saturday by a unanimous show of
hands, seeks to relax restrictions on the rights of
members of the now-dissolved Baath Party to fill
government posts.
It is also designed to reinstate thousands of
Baathists dismissed from government jobs after the
U.S. invasion -- a decision that deepened sectarian
tensions between Iraq's majority Shiites and the
once-dominant Sunni Arabs, who believed the firings
targeted their community.
The strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification
rules also meant that many senior bureaucrats who
knew how to run ministries, university departments
and state companies ended up unemployed in a country
where 35 years of Baath Party rule and extensive
government involvement in the economy had left tens
of thousands of party members in key positions.
That, coupled with the disbanding of the Iraqi army,
threw tens of thousands of people out of work at a
critical time in Iraq's history and fueled the
burgeoning Sunni insurgency.
Change of position
The U.S. initially promoted de-Baathification but
later claimed that Iraqi authorities went beyond
even what the Americans had contemplated to keep
Saddam's supporters out of important jobs.
With the Sunni insurgency raging and political
leaders making little progress in reconciling Iraq's
Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities, the
Americans switched positions and urged the
dismantling of de-Baathification laws.
Later, enacting and implementing legislation
reinstating the fired Baath supporters became one of
18 so-called benchmark issues the U.S. sought as
measures for progress in national reconciliation.
The legislation can become law only when approved by
Iraq's presidential council. The council, comprised
of Iraq's president and two vice presidents, is
expected to ratify the measure.
The draft law approved Saturday is not a blanket
approval for all former Baathists to take government
jobs.
The law will allow low-ranking Baathists not
involved in past crimes against Iraqis to go back to
their jobs. High-ranking Baathists will be sent to
compulsory retirement and those involved in crimes
will stand trial, though their families will still
have the right to pension.
The Baathists who were members in Saddam's security
agencies must retire -- except for members of
Fidayeen Saddam, a feared militia formed by Saddam's
eldest son, Oday. They will be entitled to nothing.
Inside parliament, when the Kurdish lawmakers raised
their hands in favor of the article that the members
of Saddam's security bodies should be sent to
compulsory retirement, the Sunni Arab parliament
speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, told the Kurds: "Now
you raise your hands in favor of sending Saddam's
security men to retirement, while earlier you
reinstated the Kurds who collaborated with or worked
for Saddam to government jobs in Kurdistan."
Al-Mashhadani spoke of "donkeys," a term used by
Kurds to describe the Kurdish people who used to
collaborate with Saddam. They were pardoned by
Kurdistan officials after 2003 war.
"Are your donkeys better than our donkeys?" al-Mashhadani
asked, referring to Kurds who used to work for
Saddam's security operations.
AP
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