Iraqi VP Refuses to Ratify Baathist Reconciliation Law

[Hissyspit]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Iraqi VP refuses to ratify Baathist reconciliation law
8 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's Sunni vice president refused Friday to ratify a law supposed to reintegrate former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party into public life, saying it would instead worsen their exclusion.

Last month Shiite and Sunni MPs unanimously passed a bill to partly reverse a decree issued by Iraq's former US occupation authority which sacked hundreds of thousands of Baathists from government and the armed forces. On Friday, however, Vice President Tareq Hashemi's office confirmed that he had asked for amendments to the law prior to approving its ratification by Iraq's three-man presidential council.

"We have worked for months to fundamentally amend the de-Baathification law, in order to make it part of the national reconciliation project," Hashemi said, in a television interview reproduced on his official website. "This bill has a feel of retaliation. How will that help to stabilise the situation?" he asked.

- snip -

US officials decided they had made a mistake and President George W. Bush has pressured Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to pass the new law in a bid to reconcile Iraq's bitterly divided Sunni and Shiite communities.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-rquUJsVG2S0n39Bui9wXFYbkPw

[ohio2007]

1. Iraqi Baath law comes into effect

A measure allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to public life in Iraq has become law.
The legislation was passed by the Iraqi parliament last month, but needed final approval by the country's presidency council before coming into effect.

The council approved the law despite objections by one of its three members, Sunni Vice-President Tariq HashemiHe said the law would result in people being forced out of their jobs to make way for returning former Baathists.

US President George W Bush last month praised the law as an important step towards national reconciliation in Iraq.

The Baath party, formed mainly from Iraq's Sunni minority, was declared illegal after the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7225322.stm

He got punked by 'the system'. The low level pencil pushers that actually greased the wheels of the Iraqi bureaucracy are coming back to dot the I's and cross the T's.

All the govt workers under Saddam had to be in "the union" in order to draw a paycheck. This is a victory for the lowly bean counters.