Iraqis divided over deBaathization policy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, February 07, 2004

Iraqis divided over deBaathization policy

Iraqi public opinion has been divided over US-backed policy of deBaathization, which so far resulted in purging thousands of former Baathist officials from their jobs in government offices.

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Iraqi public opinion has been divided over US-backed policy of deBaathization, which so far resulted in purging thousands of former Baathist officials from their jobs in government offices.

In line with this policy and under mounting pressure from the American-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, most former Baathists publicly renounced allegiance to their disbanded party.

For instance, in the northern city of Mosul, large numbers of former army and intelligence officers proclaimed in US-sponsored gatherings their denunciation of the party, which ruled Iraq almost single-handed for 35 years before the US-led war on Iraq last March.

There is no official figure of Baathists, but it could reach as high as two millions.

Last May, US civil administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer banned the Baath party and demobilized the 400,000-strong Iraqi army. Under the 24-year rule of Saddam regime, all army officers should be Baathist.

To prove their sincerity, these former Baathists signed a document according which they vowed to "protect and rebuild a new Iraq" and declared themselves non-partisan.

Former colonel Taha al-Zibari said this week that "the Baath party finished and will never come back."

However, the wide-spread dismissal of thousands of former Baathists has touched off a public outrage over the wellbeing of their families.

Abu Omar, a former Baathist who was dismissed from his high post in the Ministry of Finance, protested the fact that his four-member family had been left with no bread.

"I joined the Baath party in 1982, not because I believed in its principles but to support my family," he said.

Abu Omar, 52, accused the deBaathization policy, saying that "Iraq's new rulers" purged former Baathists indiscriminately.

Most of the sacked Baathists have not got their salaries for the past nine months.

However, some of these former Baathists like Sami, 56, still upheld allegiance to the Baath party.

"I had joined the party voluntarily because it was a national party and I had faith in it," he said. "Now I am going to denounce it because I have no other option to get my salary."

Observers believe that the majority of the 25 million Iraqi people prefer bringing to justice only those Baathists who committed crimes against humanity.

Most of the top Baath party officials including Saddam are now in US custody.

Meanwhile, a number of former Baathist officials, security and intelligence officers who are reported to have been involved in torturing or even killing innocent people under the 24-year Saddam rule had been assassinated by unknown killers in post-war Iraq.

Slogans could be seen on the walls in Baghdad, reading "Oh, Baathists...the moment of your murder has come!"

According to one report, 40 former Baathists have been killed in the second largest city of Basra in southern Iraq.

The deBaathization policy has met a mixed reaction from the Iraqis in the past two months when their attention has been focused on how to restore peace and security to start the gigantic and costly reconstruction of their war-torn country.

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