Iraqi province gives Saddam loyalists 24 hours to leave
Local government officials warned Saddam Hussein loyalists on Monday
to move out of the Shiite province of Najaf in central Iraq within 24
hours or face an “iron fist.” They demanded the exodus after a meeting
to discuss security in the wake of a triple bomb attack last week in
Najaf, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Baghdad, that left up to
15 people dead.
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Iraq
* To move out of the province within 24
hours
* Blamed the bomb attack on Sadam’s
outlawed Baath party |
“The Baath gang of Saddam has one day to leave the province or we
will use an iron fist against those who have failed to distance
themselves from the Baath and Al-Qaeda,” the officials said in a
statement.
The leader of the provincial council, which is dominated by the party
of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, blamed the bomb attack on
Baathists, referring to Saddam’s outlawed Sunni-dominated Baath party.
“The council’s next measure will be to purge local government
institutions of Baathists,” said the statement, which also asked Baghdad
to use its intelligence services to identify wrongdoers. The demand
could further inflame Sunni-Shiite tensions after many Sunnis were among
500 candidates barred last week from the conflict-wracked country’s
March 7 general election, purportedly because of Baathist links.
Baath party membership was a key condition for obtaining a job and
gaining promotion in public sector employment during Saddam’s regime. As
a consequence the party included large numbers of Sunnis and Shiites. A
controversial process of de-Baathification was adopted by Washington
diplomat Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
following the invasion in 2003 which saw thousands of Saddam-era
employees sacked.
Resentment among Sunnis over that decision and a subsequent
Shiite-dominated government lingers despite a national reconciliation
process aimed at healing such rifts.
Khaled Jashami, a member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC),
one of the country’s biggest Shiite parties, however, was adamant that
drastic measures were needed in Najaf.
Najaf, Tuesday, AFP
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