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Baghdad Life
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A Raid Could Increase Tensions Over Fate of Baath Party Members

By Gina Chon

An early morning raid at the office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the main Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, could increase already tense relations between political parties. A key point of contention is the purge of Baath Party members after the war, a process – as Sarmad describes below – the roiled institutions and affected the lives of many ordinary Iraqis.

More than 40 suspects, including eight of Mr. Dulaimi’s guards, were detained by U.S. and Iraqi forces after they found two car bombs near his office, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday. As a member of parliament, Mr. Dulaimi has immunity but it’s unclear whether he will be protected if there is evidence linking him to the bombs.

Mr. Dulaimi’s office released a statement saying the accusations were untrue and meant to harm his reputation. The Accordance Front decided to abandon its seats in the parliament and in the cabinet in August to express its dissatisfaction with the Shiite-led government. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been negotiating with bloc members to bring them back.

Tensions have been simmering because of recent contentious debate in the parliament over the so-called Accountability and Justice law, formerly known as the de-Baathificiation law. The legislation would allow thousands of former Baath party members to return to their jobs and receive pensions. It also says the Baath Party can be tried for committing crimes against the Iraqi people.

[Adnan Al-Dulaimi]
Adnan Al-Dulaimi speaks to reporters in Baghdad in August.

The legislation has been criticized by some Shiites as not harsh enough, while some Sunnis say it is too severe. The continued wrangling has prevented the government from making more progress, even while security improves.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh acknowledged to me recently that the political situation was not as good as it should be, especially when compared to the relative security gains. He said political parties were still nominating officials to government posts based on their political cache as opposed to their ability and competency.

And the government still has to deal with other controversial issues, such as the oil law, local provincial elections and the status of Kirkuk, where Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen and others live. Political disagreements have held those issues up, as well.

De-Baathification Began Early
By Sarmad Ali

Shortly after the U.S. troops invaded Iraq, I went back to my college in Baghdad to talk with my adviser about how to proceed with my master’s thesis. By that time, I had not seen him or talked to him on the phone for about two months, since the U.S.-led forces hit targets across the country and marched north to Baghdad to unseat Saddam. My adviser, an athletic, tall and hairy man, always had his light brown prescription sunglasses on, even when he was standing in the shade or teaching in classrooms, mainly, to cover his left eye, which was damaged when he was in the military.

When I got to the department, I found my adviser, other professors and students standing between the library and the burned and looted English department where the professors’ offices had been. Their fridges, desks and chairs were gone, their walls and ceilings blackened with soot. Students congratulated each and shook hands with the professors, thanking Allah for their safety. I was happy to see my professor, who taught me for six years, still alive. He was a man known for his good manners, fairness and support. Many students wanted him to supervise their theses, and many others, who weren’t lucky enough to have him as an adviser, hoped that he would at least be selected as a member of the committee that would grant them their degrees.

He was from a very prominent and highly privileged Sunni tribe under Saddam. Members of the tribe he belonged to, which is known as Al-Dulaimi and comes originally from Anbar province in western Iraq, held important positions in Saddam’s government, were professors and heads of departments in universities, judges and generals in the army as well as high-ranking officials in the now defunct Baath Party.

[Paul Bremer]
L. Paul Bremer greets Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, in Baghdad in May 2003. Mr. Chalabi headed Iraq’s Supreme National Commission for De-Baathification.

My professor, whose name I will not use in order to protect his identity, not only belonged to Al-Dulaimi tribe, but prior to teaching was also a former retired general in the army and a Baath Party member. He was not high enough in the ranks of the party to be sacked from his position in the de-Baathification that was undertaken in 2003, shortly after L. Paul Bremer took charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority that oversaw Iraq after the war. But he believes two other facts about him — his tribal name and links to the army — were enough to end his career at Baghdad University.

He remained at the university long enough for me to finish my thesis and graduate in mid-2004, just a few months before leaving Baghdad for graduate school in New York. I later learned that my professor, along with another professor, received death threats and had to leave the university. And a few months ago, I unexpectedly received an email from him saying that he had been forced to leave his job and his family. He fled to Syria to start teaching at a school there. He asked me to make him copies of some linguistics books that he couldn’t find in Syria. I promised I would but have not done it yet.

De-Baatthification affected many professors and students. One close college friend was finishing his degree in translation, when his adviser was sacked amid the purge of senior Baath officials from government institutions. My friend later explained to me that he then was basically left on his own with no assigned replacement adviser. Left with no other choice, my friend ended up meeting the fired adviser every few weeks in an agreed-on place, usually on a random street corner or intersection to exchange files of translated material for the thesis. He finished his work, but his adviser was barred from attending thesis defense at the university.

Under Saddam, many people joined the Baath Party as a matter of course, signing forms in hopes of avoiding governmental red tape. I know a person who joined the Baath Party just because he was afraid that, after all his hard work in his undergraduate school, he wouldn’t be admitted to a Master’s program. Another Shiite Kurdish friend in my neighborhood joined the party, although his family and relatives were persecuted by Saddam during the 1980s. He believed it would show some sort of loyalty that could in turn save his family and relatives pain and harassment from Baath Party members in the future. We knew that people who joined the party in this way weren’t really committed to the party’s ideals. It was just one way to survive under Saddam.

I was chased to join the ranks of the Baath Party for years in middle and high schools as well as college. I never did: I escaped because I got sick a lot, and was seen as unable to attend party meetings. Still, Baath Party members in my neighborhood and at my college approached me from time to time to join.

A Baath Party member came asking for my younger brother one day when he was still in middle school. He asked me if my brother was home. I lied and said no. My brother was watching television in the living room. The Baath Party member asked when he would be back. I lied again and said I didn’t really know. He grew furious and asked me how old I was and what I did, I told him I was a Master’s student. “I assume your are a comrade?” he asked, meaning a member in the Baath Party. Party members call each other comrades. “No” was my reluctant response. Taken aback, he asked me how was it possible for a fine, wise person like me to be a Master’s student without thinking of joining the party. I still had the chance to join the party and make my family and leader proud of me, he said. Then thankfully, he walked away.

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