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Iraq
Garner promises to weed out Ba’athists
2003-05-08
EFL
The US envoy to Iraq, the former general Jay Garner, promised yesterday that committed members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party would be weeded out, after mounting protests over their being allowed jobs in the country's new administration. Hundreds of Iraqi doctors held a demonstration in the centre of the city at lunchtime against the US appointment of Ali Shnan al-Janabi as head of the health ministry. He was number three in the ministry during Saddam's regime. The doctors chanted: "New clean era. New clean figures." One of them, Imad Saud, a resident surgeon in cardiothoracic medicine, said that before the war Mr Janabi had been a faithful servant of Saddam. "How can we trust him?"
He's got a point there.
The US and British are finding "de-Baathification" of Iraq more difficult than expected. To get the country up and running they are having to turn to people with administrative and technical experience, even though these same people occupied senior positions in Saddam's regime. Defending the policy, Gen Garner, who leads the coalition's Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, said: "Like most other totalitarian regimes, most of the people that worked in running the country were part of the party. Some were good, some were bad. You bring everybody back and you can sort out who was good and who was bad and then you jug the bad ones and try them for crimes against humanity. It takes time."

The US yesterday appointed as governor of the province that includes Tikrit, Saddam's stronghold, Brigadier-General Hosin Jasem Mohamed al-Jbouri. Nahad Gaze Ahmed al-Nasere, a former Iraqi airforce colonel, was appointed deputy governor. Both men signed statements renouncing any loyalty to the Baath party. But Major-General Tim Cross, the British deputy head of ORHA, insisted that some members of the former regime had already been blocked from participating in a new government. "At the ministry of planning, some of the senior leadership ... are being asked to go home and take extended leave," Gen Cross said.
"And we're even providing a home for them on a former military base!"
Ummm... How soon's the Ministry of Planning going to be disbanded? I've noticed that countries without them seem to get along better than countries with them. Only think I could think of that'd be worse for Iraq would be a Department of Islamic Planning...
As well as the doctors, opposition parties have lodged protests over the policy of appointing former Baathists. Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for one of the main exile groups, the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, said: "We have cautioned against Baathists being used and made our views known to ORHA in no uncertain terms." He was especially scathing about the British government, which he accused of bringing back prominent Ba'ath party members in the southern city of Basra, which is under the control of British forces. Mr Sethna said: "If the US and British find themselves in the position of protecting Baathists, this is folly. It is the surest way to spawn anti-Western sentiment... Senior, middle and junior people who worked for the former regime will have to be looked at on a case by case basis. It has to be Iraqis who do this. The US and British can't identify them."
So, okay, get on with making a list.
In the Shia rising after the 1991 war in the Gulf, many Ba'athists in the south were hung from lampposts.
Good idea.
But there have been few revenge attacks this time.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  it has to be iraqis who do this - which means it has to wait till we've settled on which Iraqis will be in charge.

Few revenge attacks this time - has got to be one of the most underplayed stories of the war. Aside from quagmire fixation, the biggest fear of the idiotarians from Fisk on down was that the aftermath would involve a revenge bloodbath leading to civil war. That hasnt happened - thats why the frustrated antis have been grabbing at straws, like the looting.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-05-08 09:19:12  

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