Former members of late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who lost their jobs in the wake of the 2003 invasion will be allowed to take up posts in the government and security forces under a new law designed to foster reconciliation between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Arabs.
The US has been putting intense pressure on the Shiite-led government to meet a series of benchmarks designed to bring Iraq's once all-powerful Sunni Arabs back into the fold and take the sting out of the insurgency, which is raging in many Sunni areas of the capital and beyond.
Leading Sunni figures hope the bill will also encourage the return to Iraq of thousands of Sunnis who have fled abroad since 2003. Under the new legislation, which will be sent to parliament by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, and Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, a Shiite Arab, those who do not find new employment will be eligible for state pensions.
The bill covers Baath Party members who served in Saddam's civil service and military organizations. But it excludes Baathists who have been charged with or are wanted for crimes committed under the former regime. According to the law, there would be a three-month challenge period after which former Baath Party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions under Saddam.
Saleh al Mutlaq, a leading Sunni politician who has links to the former Baath Party, said he backed the new law.
"It is a belated opportunity to correct the mistakes made by Paul Bremer," he said.
In May 2003, US administrator Paul Bremer sacked the army and all civil servants and officials above the Baath Party's lowest levels. Critics of this so-called de-Baathification process say it has been one of the main factors in Iraq's current turmoil.
"You have to understand how much we feared the Baath Party," said one Shiite government official.
But, he acknowledged: "The wholesale removal of the pillars of Iraq's administrative and security structures paralyzed institutions and created half a million discontented and jobless people, many of them Sunni."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in