BAGHDAD, Iraq – A day after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, the Shiite-dominated government offered a major concession Monday to his Sunni backers that could see thousands of members of the ousted dictator’s Baath party reinstated in their jobs.
With a tight curfew holding down violence after Hussein’s guilty verdict and death sentence, the government reached out to disaffected Sunnis in hopes of enticing them away from the insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and is responsible for the vast majority of U.S. casualties.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of five more American troops, two in a helicopter crash north of Baghdad and three in fighting west of the capital. The deaths raised to 18 the number of U.S. forces killed in the first six days of November.
Relentless sectarian killings also persisted despite the extraordinary security precautions. Fifty-nine bodies were discovered Sunday and Monday across Iraq, police said. But with no surge in violence, authorities were gradually lifting the restrictions in Baghdad and two restive Sunni provinces: Pedestrians were allowed back on the capital’s streets late Monday afternoon, and the international airport was to reopen this morning.
Around the country, jubilant Shiites celebrated the verdict while Sunnis held defiant counter-demonstrations.
Iraq’s appeals court is expected to rule on an appeal by Hussein’s lawyers by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said Monday, setting in motion a possible execution by mid-February. If the ruling is upheld, The Associated Press has learned that Iraq’s three-man presidential council is pledged to allow Hussein’s hanging to take place. The execution must be carried out within 30 days of the appeals court’s decision.
Sunday’s verdict and Monday’s opening to the Sunnis were seen as a welcome break for the United States, which had recently called for the Iraqi government to stop purging members of Hussein’s Baath party from their jobs. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, has balked at U.S. requests to set up an amnesty for insurgents.
About 1.5 million of Iraq’s 27 million people belonged to the Baath party when Hussein was ousted. Most said they joined for professional, not ideological, reasons.
Career advancement, university enrollment and specialized medical care depended on party membership. However, those who advanced in the party were expected to spy on fellow Iraqis and to join militias that were accused of helping suppress Shiite and Kurdish revolts after the 1991 Gulf War.
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