Many Baathists may be cleared to work again for government

By Seattle Times news services

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is considering revising a policy that excluded former senior members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from working for the government.

At the same time, Iraqis who served in Saddam's army, including senior officers, are needed for the new army and will be absorbed at a faster and higher level, provided they did not engage in criminal activity, an administration official said.

Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command, disclosed last week the military was reaching out to former senior Iraqi army officers to help shore up the struggling Iraqi security services

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher the policy of excluding all senior members of the Baath party from government positions in Iraq was being reconsidered.

"The implementation of that policy is being looked at and is being revised in order to ensure that the original intent of the policy is better met. ... The goal is to balance the need for expertise and experience that some Iraqis have with the need for justice," Boucher said.

The policy, known as de-Baathification, has been criticized for alienating Iraqi technocrats who were required under Saddam to join the party to keep their jobs and for denying the new government available technical expertise.

After criticism last week by a U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, that the effort was excluding too many Sunnis, coalition authorities are taking a new look at the process "to make sure it's working as advertised," one U.S. official said.

Only alleged criminals, expected to face trials, will remain automatically excluded along with the top four levels of the Baath party and the three most senior levels of ministries of the fallen leader's government, an official of the U.S.-led coalition said in a telephone interview from Baghdad.

But other Iraqis who have been banned, including 14,000 discharged teachers, will get their jobs back if they can make the case that they were party members in name only, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 
In addition, the process of appealing disqualifications will be speeded up so Iraqis can get rulings more quickly, the official said.

The policy of excluding Baathists was popular with some Iraqis, but U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer also received complaints that the appeals process was too slow and too many people remained disqualified even for teaching jobs, the official said.

Bremer will describe the changes today during a planned interview on a U.S.-run television station in Iraq, Al-Iraqiya TV, spokesman Dan Senor said in Baghdad.

Under Saddam, the Baath Party had an estimated 1.5 million members, most of whom joined only because they had been told they could not get a job, a bonus or admission to college for their children without the party's support.

Compiled from Knight Ridder Newspapers, The Associated Press and The Washington Post

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company