Brian Murphy: Iraq's PM resolute in crusade to purge memory of Saddam

Published on Monday 25 January 2010 21:47

TO HEAR Iraq's prime minister tell it: the country's future depends on purging its past links with Saddam Hussein's regime. And Nouri al-Maliki is saying it every chance he gets.

He has become something of a one-man tribunal passing judgment on the reach of suspected loyalists to Saddam's outlawed Baath party.

Mr Maliki's pronouncements all dwell on one theme: that Shiite-led Iraq can never be secure until it has weeded out all remnants of Saddam's Sunni-dominated power base. But his preoccupation with hunting Baathists comes with potential pitfalls.

On a pure political level, it risks alienating Sunnis at a pivotal time for his government. These Sunni votes may be needed by Mr Maliki's bloc in the parliamentary elections on 7 March to fend off challenges from rival Shiites who want to unseat him. In the more cluttered realm of public image, Mr Maliki looks increasingly rigid.

He appears unwilling to temper – even slightly – his drive to name and shame perceived Saddam-era throwbacks. Sunni leaders object more to the method than the message. They say the steamroller approach cannot distinguish between those who were key Saddam apparatchiks and others who expressed support for the Baath party to secure jobs, study in universities, or simply get exit visas for international travel.

Iraq's Sunni Arabs enjoyed a privileged position under Saddam. The invasion in 2003 opened the door for the majority Shiites to take the upper hand.

"Maliki sees Baathists everywhere," said David Schenker, who follows Iraqi affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "This kind of policy, however, fails to take into account the depths of Baathism. It was far-reaching. It didn't just have its hard-core ideological followers, but also other Iraqis who were supporters just to get on."

To be sure, Mr Maliki's worries have some real grounding. The United States military and others believe elements of Saddam's former regime became part of the wider Sunni-led insurgency. Mr Maliki has gone a step farther: directly accusing Saddam loyalists of carrying out three huge bombings in Baghdad since August and denouncing neighbouring Syria for allegedly harbouring them.

Mr Maliki has strongly backed a vetting process that has blacklisted at least 512 candidates from March elections because of suspected Baath party ties. The roster includes Shiites as well as Sunnis. But some Sunni leaders see it as a political tool to knock out candidates without any clear evidence and raise suspicions before voting.

Such rancour runs straight to the White House. American officials worry about anything that could raise questions about the fairness of the election, which is seen as an important step in Iraq's political reconciliation and a boost toward accelerating US troop withdrawals.

Vice-president Joseph Biden came to Baghdad to drive home that point at the weekend. Yet Mr Maliki was not swayed during talks on Saturday.

In a speech to interior ministry workers on Sunday, Mr Maliki openly taunted the remnants of Saddam's backers.

"We challenge them to try a coup or change the path of the political process," he said. "They cannot."

Mr Maliki's past may highlight his unbending views. He was a member of a Shiite militant group against Saddam and fled Iraq in 1979 after learning of plans to have him killed.

He spent most of his exile in Iran – including much of the 1980-88 war with Iraq – and was part of a Shiite network seeking to topple Saddam's Baath party fortress.

"The interests of the country lie in excluding those that are glorifying the former regime and tie themselves with its ugly past," Mr Maliki said on state-run Iraqiyya TV on Friday.

Many other places, such as post-apartheid South Africa and post-Iron Curtain Europe, have struggled with how to put to rest their pasts. But few places have gone through with the degree of pressures on Iraq, which must rebuild its security forces and reach some sort of political common ground while US troops concentrate on exiting by the end of next year.

Mr Maliki should be mindful that settling scores with the Saddam era is not the priority for everyone, said Baghdad-based political analyst Hadi Jalo.

Politicians may pay a price for being seen as ignoring more routine concerns about finding work and rebuilding roads and electrical grids, he said. Mr Maliki's rivals, including former prime minister Ayad Allawi, could benefit.

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, who studies regional affairs at Emirates University, sees Mr Maliki's campaign as a bit of political evolution for Iraq.

"This is a taste of the new Iraq," he said. "It's moving violent things to more political things. It's not easy. Politics is always ugly."