Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي في العراق
Leader	Disputed: Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri and Younis al-Ahmed are heading two separate Ba'ath parties
Founded	est. 1948–1952 (est. 1948–1952)
Headquarters	Baghdad, Iraq
Newspaper	Al-Thawra
Paramilitary wing	National Guard (1963) Iraqi Popular Army (1970–1991) Fedayeen Saddam (1995–2003)
Ideology	Ba'athism (Saddamist Ba'athism as of 1979)
National affiliation	National Progressive Front
International affiliation	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1951–1966) Iraq-based Ba'ath Party (1966–present)
Colors	Black, Red, White and Green (Pan-Arab colors)
Party flag
Politics of Iraq Political parties Elections

The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region (Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي في العراق Hizb Al-Baath Al-'Arabi Al-Ishtiraki fi Al-'Iraq) is a Ba'athist regional organisation founded in 1951 by Fuad al-Rikabi, which was part of the original Ba'ath Party (1951–1966) and changed its allegiance to the Iraqi-led Ba'ath movement following the 1966 split within the Ba'ath Party.

Organisation and structure[edit]

Regional Congress[edit]

The Regional Congress was in theory the de jure decision-making organ on Iraqi regional affairs when in session, but was in practice, a tool in control of the party leadership.

Congresses held (while in power);

• 7th Regional Congress (1969)
• 8th Regional Congress (1974)
• 9th Regional Congress (1982)
• 10th Regional Congress (1991)
• 11th Regional Congress (1993)
• 12th Regional Congress (2001)

Regional Command[edit]

The Regional Command (RC) (Arabic: al-qiyada al-qutriyya‎, is the party's de facto highest decision-making organ – the de jure organ is the National Command, which has been split in half since the 1966 Syrian coup d'état, in between National Congresses. Throughout its history, the RC has normally had 19-21 members.^[1] When in power, the Directorate of Security Affairs was responsible for the security of the President and the senior members of the Regional Command.^[2]

Secretariat[edit]

The Ba'ath Party had its own Secretariat (Arabic: maktab amanat sir al-qutr‎), which every major decision in the country was channelled through. According to Joseph Sassoon, the Secretariat functioned as the "party's board of directors",^[3] overseeing the running of the party branches, which in turn controlled and collected information about civilian and military life throughout the country.^[4] The Secretariat had the power to propose marriages, and in certain cases, to approve and disapprove marriages for the sake of the party.^[5] At the 8th Regional Congress, the leadership laid emphasis on building "a strong and central national authority."^[6] The party leadership's response to the party's apparent lack of centralisation came with a Revolutionary Command Council resolution which stated "that all correspondence between state ministries and party organisations are to be sent through the Party Secretariat."^[6]

The head of the Secretariat was the Deputy Director, who was the second in the order of precedence. The Office of Director of the Secretariat was the leading organ with the body. The Secretariat had eleven departments; the Military and Armaments Department, Vocational Schools Department, Courses Department, Finance Department, Organisational and Political Department, Party Affairs and Information Department, Personnel and Administrative Department, Technical Department, Information and Studies Department, Legal Department and the Audit Department. The only non-department under the direct responsibility of the Secretariat was the Saddam Institute for the Study of the Qur'an.^[7]

The functions and responsibilities of the Secretariat were drawn up in a detailed manner. The Office of the President issued a directive to formulate its hierarchy, and the functions of the sections and departments were clearly defined.^[6] The Secretariat encompassed all party branches. This system led to the bureaucratisation of the party, and decision-making was often cumbersome and inefficient. This inefficiency meant that Saddam could govern without fearing any rivals.^[1] The Department for Organisational and Political Affairs (DOPA) was the most important department of the Secretariat; it prepared material for discussion that the secretary general (Arabic: amin sir‎), the party's leader, personally ordered . The DOPA was also responsible for following up on political matters in party branches. One of DOPA's sections was responsible for gathering information for candidates for important positions within the party or the government. Some departments had a similar job to the DOPA section, and were responsible for admissions to the military colleges, institutions for higher education and the Saddam Institute for the Study of the Qur'an. The party sought to control these institutions so that no single opposition party could gain a foothold in them.^[1]

Lower levels[edit]

Below the Regional Command were the Bureau Structures (Arabic: maktab al-tandhimat‎), which would gather all party activities in a single geographic area into the responsibility of a single unit. Until 1989, there were six Bureau Structures in the country; in Baghdad, al-Furat, the centre, southern and northern Iraq, and one bureau for military affairs. By 2002, there were seventeen.^[8] Below the Bureau Structures was the Branch (Arabic: Fir‎), which supervised the activities of the sections, divisions and cells (Arabic: shu'ba, firqa and khaliyya)‎. Several of these organs were merged or split, and the number of branches had increased to sixty-nine branches by 2002.^[8] The numbers of sections and divisions varied between provinces. As membership increased, new sections and divisions were established.^[9] In Maysan province, the number of sections increased from 5 in 1989 to 20 in 2002, each section in turn having 93 divisions. By September 2002, there existed 4,468 party offices in the country, and there were 32,000 cells.^[10]

Security functions[edit]

Nationally, the Ba'ath Party functioned as an institution acting as the eyes and ears of the regime. During its rule, the party gained influence over the military, the government bureaucracy, labour, professional unions and not least, the building of the cult of personality of Saddam. From the 1990s until the fall of the Ba'ath Party in 2003, it became involved in the handling of food distribution, the pursuing and apprehension of military deserters and by the end,^[10] it was responsible for the preparations for the American-led invasion of Iraq. Branches and sections enjoyed powers similar to those of the police in the West. Outside of Baghdad, they were "legally authorised to incarcerate suspects using extrajudicial procedures".^[11]

One of the party's most important functions was gathering information about its opponents. In Northern Iraq, the Ba'ath gathered information about the Kurdish Democratic Party by tracking their activities among the local population. They tried to recruit members from Kurd-dominated areas through supplying food or a literacy campaign.^[11] During the drive to Arabise Kurdistan, the party resettled several hundred loyal party officials there to strengthen the party in the area. Kurds who had moved from Kurdistan, would in most instances, not be allowed back unless they were loyal Ba'ath Party members.^[12] The Military and Armament Department was responsible for coordinating the distribution of arms to party officials.^[13]

Management[edit]

Discipline[edit]

The Ba'ath Party instilled party discipline in its members. According to a statement in the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), "Party members are expected to inspire others by their exemplary behavior, sense of discipline, political consciousness, and willingness to sacrifice themselves in the interests of the Party and state."^[14] Saddam was a great believer in discipline, and believed that lack of discipline and organisation were behind any failure. In accordance with this view, the party issued a myriad of rules and regulations to combat laziness, corruption and abuses of power. Members found breaching the party code were either demoted or expelled from the party.^[15]

Finances[edit]

The Ba'ath Party was supported financially by the RCC, the highest executive and legislative body of government. Members had to pays fees commensurate with their ranks. For instance, a supporting member would pay 25 Iraqi dinar for membership, while a branch member would pay 3,000 Iraqi dinars. Fees were important in the party's balance sheet; the central party leadership often emphasised the importance of members' financial abilities. The leadership encouraged members to contribute more to party finances.^[16] According to Jawad Hashim, a former Minister of Planning and the RCC Economic Advisor, Saddam gave the Ba'ath Party the five percent of Iraqi oli revenues which were previously owned by the Gulbenkin Foundation. Saddam's reasoning was that if a counter-coup took place and the Ba'ath Party was forced from power, as had been the case in November 1963, the party needed financial security so that it could reclaim power.^[16] By Hasim's estimates, the Ba'ath Party had accumulated US$10 billion in external revenues by 1989.^[14]

Membership[edit]

When the party came to power in 1968 in the 17 July Revolution, it was determined to increase party membership so that it could compete with ideological opponents such as the Iraqi Communist Party. Saddam had a clear plan, and on 25 February 1976 he said, "it should be our ambition to make all Iraqis in the country Ba'athists in membership and belief or in the latter only."^[17] This is contrary to his tatements in the 1990s, when increasing membership was more importance to adherents of Ba'athist ideology. Like most parties, the Ba'ath membership was organised in a hierarchical manner. The head of a branch, division or section was the Secretary General, who was responsible to the Secretariat. At the bottom was Sympathiser, a member seeking to climb the party ranks with the status of active members, which could take five to ten years. In certain provinces, "national activity" was the status given to the lowest level of the hierarchy. Where this level existed, it could take two to three years to climb up to the rank of sympathiser.^[18] In the report to the 10th National Congress it was stated that "it is not sufficient for a member just to believe in the idea of the party, but what is required is total commitment and not simply a political affiliation."^[19]

History[edit]

Early years and the 14 July Revolution: 1951–1958[edit]

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Organisations Arab Ba'ath (1940–1947) Arab Ba'ath Movement (1940–1947) Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1947–1966) pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement (1966–present) pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement (1966–present)
People Zaki al-Arsuzi Michel Aflaq Salah al-Din al-Bitar Wahib al-Ghanim Fuad al-Rikabi Salah Jadid Hafez al-Assad Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Saddam Hussein Bashar al-Assad Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri
Literature Ba'ath Constitution On the Way of Resurrection The Battle for One Destiny The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue
History Ba'athist Iraq Ramadan (8 February) Revolution November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état 17 July Revolution Iran–Iraq War Gulf War UN sanctions Iraq War Ba'athist Syria Syrian Committee to Help Iraq 8th of March Revolution 1966 Syrian coup d'état Corrective Revolution Syrian civil war
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Fuad al-Rikabi founded the Iraqi cell of the Ba'ath Party in 1951^[20] or 1952.^[21] Some authorities say that the Iraqi cell was established by Abd ar Rahman ad Damin and Abd al Khaliq al Khudayri in 1947 after their return from the founding congress of the Ba'ath Party held in Damascus, Syria the same year.^[22] In another version, al-Rikabi established the Iraqi cell in 1948 with Sa'dun Hamadi, a Shia Muslim, but became Secretary of the Regional Command in 1952.^[23] The Iraqi cell was Arab nationalist and vague in its socialist orientation.^[24] Al-Rikabi, expelled from the party in 1961 for being a Nasserist,^[25] was an early follower of Michel Aflaq, the founder of Ba'athism.^[26] During the party's early days, members discussed topics regarding Arab nationalism, the social inequalities that had grown out of the British "Tribal Disputes Regulation", and the Iraqi Parliament's Law 28 of 1932 "Governing the Rights and Duties of Cultivators".^[20] By 1953, the party, led by al-Rikabi, was engaged in subversive activities against the government.^[27]

The party initially consisted of a majority of Shia Muslims, as al-Rikabi recruited mainly his friends and family, but it slowly became Sunni-dominated.^[28] The Ba'ath Party, and others of pan-Arab orientation, found it increasingly difficult to recruit Shia members within the party organisation. Most Shias saw pan-Arab thought as largely Sunni, since most Muslims in the Arab world were Sunni. Because of this, most Shias joined the Iraqi Communist Party instead of the Ba'ath Party. In the mid-1950s, eight of seventeen members of the Ba'ath leadership were Shia. According to Talib Shabib, the Ba'ath foreign minister in the Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr government, the sectarian background of the leading Ba'ath members was considered of little importance because most Ba'athisst did not know each other's sectarian denominations.^[29] Between 1952 and 1963, 54% of the members of the Ba'ath Regional Command were Shia Muslims, largely because of al-Rikabi's effective recruitment drive in Shia areas. Between 1963 and 1970, after al-Rikabi's resignation, Shia representation in the Regional Command had fallen to 14 percent. However, of the three factions within the Ba'ath Party, two out of three faction leaders were Shia.^[30]

By the end of 1951, the party had at least 50 members.^[31] With the collapse of the pan-Arabist United Arab Republic (UAR), several leading Ba'ath members, including al-Rikabi, resigned from the party in protest.^[32] In 1958, the year of the 14 July Revolution that overthrew the Hashemite monarchy, the Ba'ath Party had 300 members nationwide.^[33] General Abd al-Karim Qasim, the leader of the Free Officer movement which overthrew the king, supported joining the UAR, but changed his position when he took power. Several members of the Free Officer movements were also members of the Ba'ath Party. The Ba'ath Party considered the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of the pan-Arab movement, to be the leader most likely to succeed, and supported Iraq's joining the union. Of the 16 members of Qasim's cabinet, 12 were Ba'ath Party members. However, the Ba'ath Party supported Qasim on the grounds that he would join Nasser's UAR.^[34]

Qasim's Iraq: 1958–1963[edit]

Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party student cell, Cairo, in the period 1959–63.

Shortly after taking power, Qasim changed his position on joining the UAR and started campaigning for the "Iraq first policy".^[34] To strengthen his own position within the government, Qasim created an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party, which was opposed to the notion of pan-Arabism.^[35] The change of policy provoked several pan-Arab organisations, especially the Ba'ath Party. Later that year, the Ba'ath Party leadership was planning to assassinate Qasim and take power to continue the policy of pan-Arabism. Saddam Hussein, the Iraq region's Secretary General , was a leading member of the operation. At the time, the Ba'ath Party was more of an ideological experiment then a strong, anti-government, fighting machine. Most of its members were either educated professionals or students, and Saddam fitted the bill.^[36] The choice of Hussein was, according to historian Con Coughlin, hardly surprising. Abdul Karim al-Shaikhly, the leader of the operation, asked Hussein to join it when one of team members left.^[37] The idea of assassinating Qasim may have been Nasser's and speculations exist that some participants in the operation received training in Damascus, which was then part of the UAR.^[38]

The assassins planned to ambush Qasim at Al-Rashid Street on 7 October 1959: one man was to kill those sitting at the back of the car, the rest would kill those in front. During the ambush, Hussein began shooting prematurely, which disorganised the whole operation. Qasim's chauffeur was killed and Qasim was hit in the arm and shoulder. The assassins thought they had killed him and quickly retreated to their headquarters, but Qasim survived.^[37] At the time of the attack the Ba'ath Party had less than 1,000 members.^[39] Some of the plotters quickly managed left the country for Syria, where Michel Aflaq gave Hussein full party membership.^[40]The Iraqi government arrested some members of the operation, and took them into custody. At the show trial, six of the defendants were sentenced to death, and for unknown reasons the sentences were not carried out. Aflaq, the leader of the Ba'athist movement, organised the expulsion of leading Iraqi Ba'athist members, such as Fuad al-Rikabi, on the grounds that the party should not have initiated the attempt on Qasim's life. At the same time, Aflaq secured seats in the Iraqi Ba'ath leadership for his supporters, including Hussein.^[41]

Qasim was overthrown in the February 1963 Iraqi coup d'état, which was allegedly supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and led on the ground by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.^[42] Several army units refused to support the Ba'athist coup; the fighting lasted for two days^[43] during which 1,500–5,000 were killed.^[44] Qasim was captured, and an hour later he was killed by firing squad. To assure the Iraqi public that Qasim was dead, the plotters broadcast a film of Qasim's corpse being mutilated.^[43]

In power: Feb.–Sept. 1963[edit]

Abdul Salam Arif became the President of Iraq and Hassan al-Bakr became the Prime Minister.^[44] Ali Salih al-Sadi, Secretary General of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior – a post he lost on 11 May. Despite not being Prime Minister, al-Sadi had effective control over the Iraqi Ba'ath Party: seven out of nine members supported his leadership in the party's Regional Command.^[45]

According to Con Coughlin, in the aftermath of the coup, the National Guard initiated an "orgy of violence" against all communist elements and some left-wing forces.^[44] This period led to the establishment in Baghdad of several interrogation chambers; the government requisitioned several private houses and public facilities, and an entire section of Kifah Street was used by the National Guard. Many of the victims of the rout were innocent, or were victims of personal vendettas.^[46]According to Coughlin, the most notorious torture chamber was located at the “Palace of the End”, where the royal family was killed in 1958. Nadhim Kazzer, who became Director of the Directorate of General Security, was responsible for the acts committed there. Coughlin consider this purge a forerunner for similar anti-leftist purges around the world, most notably the one in Chile during Augusto Pinochet's rule.^[46]

The party was ousted from government in November 1963 due to factionalism. The question within the Ba'ath Party was whether or not it would pursue its ideological goal of establishing a union with Syria, Egypt or both. al-Sadi supported a union with Syria, which was ruled by the Ba'ath Party, while the more conservative military wing supported Qasim's "Iraq first policy".^[47] Factionalism and the ill-disciplined behaviour of the National Guard led the military wing to initiate a coup against the party's leadership; al-Sadi was forced into exile in Spain. al-Bakr, in an attempt to save the party, called for a meeting of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party. The meeting exacerbated the Party's problems. Aflaq, who saw himself as the leader of the pan-Arab ba'athist movement, declared his intent to take control of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The "Iraq first" wing were outraged, President Arif's lost patience with the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, and the Party was ousted from government on 18 November 1963.^[48] The 12 Ba'ath members of the government were forced to resign and the National Guard was dissolved and replaced with the Republican Guard.^[49] Some authorities believe that Aflaq supported Arif's coup against the Ba'athist government in order to weaken al-Sadi's position within the party and strengthen his own.^[50]

Union talks with Syria[edit]

Ahmen Hassan al-Bakr, as seen in 1974, led the Ba'athist coups of 1963 and 1968

At the time of al-Sadi's removal from the post of Interior Minister, factionalism and discontent were growing within the party. al-Sadi and Mundur al-Windawi – the leader of the Ba'ath Party's National Guard, led the civilian wing, President Arif led the military wing and Talib Shabib led the pro-Aflaq wing.^[45] But a bigger schism was underway in the international Ba'athist movement. Four major factions were being created: the Old Guard led by Aflaq; a civilian alliance between the Secretary Generals of the Regional Commands of Syria and Iraq – led by Hammud al-Shufi and al-Sadi respectively; the Syrian Ba'ath Military Committee – represented by Salah Jadid, Muhammad Umran, Hafiz al-Assad, Salim Hatum and Amin al-Hafiz; and the Iraqi military wing which supported Arif's presidency – represented by al-Bakr, Salih Mahdi Ammash, Tahir Yahya and Hardan Tikriti. The military wings in Syria and Iraq opposed the creation of a pan-Arab state, whereas al-Shufi and al-Sadi supported it. Aflaq officially supported it, but privately opposed it because he was afraid al-Sadi would challenge his position as Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party, the leader of the international Ba'athist movement.^[51]

Both Syria and Iraq were under Ba'athist rule in 1963. When President Arif visited Syria on a state visit, Sami al-Jundi, a Syrian cabinet minister, proposed the creation of a bilateral union between the two countries. Both Arif and Amin al-Hafiz, President of Syria, supported the idea. al-Jundi was given the task of setting up a committee to begin establishing the union. al-Jundi selected al-Sadi as Iraq's chief representative in the committee in a bid to strengthen al-Sadi's position within the Ba'ath Party. Work on the union continued with the signing of the Military Unity Charter which established the Higher Military Council, an organ which oversaw the integration and control over the Syrian and Iraqi military. Ammash, the Iraqi Minister of Defence, became the Chairman of the Higher Military Council. The unified headquarters was in Syria. The establishment of the military union became evident on 20 October 1963 when Syrian soldiers were found fighting alongside the Iraqi military in Iraqi Kurdistan.^[52] At this stage, both Iraqi and Syrian Ba'athists feared excluding Nasser from the union talks since he had a large following.^[53]

The Syrian state and its Ba'ath Party criticised the fall of al-Bakr's first government but relented when they discovered that some members of the Iraqi cabinet were Ba'ath Party members. However, the remaining Ba'athists were slowly removed from office. The Syrian Revolutionary Command Council responded by abrogating the Military Unity Charter on 26 April 1964, ending the bilateral unification process between Iraq and Syria.^[50]

Underground: 1963–1968[edit]

In the aftermath of the coup led against the Ba'ath Party, al-Bakr became the party's dominant driving force, and was elected Secretary General of the Regional Command in 1964. Saddam Hussein received full party membership and a seat in the Regional Command of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party because he was a close protege of al-Bakr.^[49] With al-Bakr's consent, Hussein initiated a drive to improve the party's internal security. During his exile in Egypt, Hussein had been influenced by Joseph Stalin, and frequently uttered Stalinist maxims such as "If there is a person there is a problem; if there is no person then there is no problem".^[54] In 1964, Hussein established the Jihaz Haneen, the party's secretive security apparatus, to act as a counterweight to the military officers in the party and to weaken the military's hold on the party.^[55]

Ba'athist Iraq: 1968–2003[edit]

In contrast to that of 1963, the 1968 coup was led by civilian Ba'ath Party members. According to historian Con Coughlin, the President of Iraq Abdul Rahman Arif, who had taken over from his brother, was a weak leader. Before the coup, Hussein, through the Jihaz Haneen, contacted several military officers who either supported the Ba'ath Party or wanted to use it as a vehicle to power. Some officers, such as Hardan al-Tikriti, were already members of the party, while Abdul Razzak al-Naif – the deputy head of military intelligence, and Colonel Ibrahim Daud – the commander of the Republican Guard, were neither party members or sympathisers. On 16 July 1968, al-Naif and Daud were summoned to Arif at the Presidential Palace, who asked them if they knew of an imminent coup against him. Both al-Naif and Daud denied knowledge of any coup. However, when the Ba'ath Party leadership obtained this information, they quickly convened a meeting at al-Bakr's house and to the conclusion that the coup had to be initiated as quickly as possible, even if they had to concede to give al-Naif and Daud the posts of Prime Minister and Defence Minister, respectively. Hussein said at the meeting, "I am aware that the two officers have been imposed on us and that they want to stab the Party in the back in the service of some interest or other, but we have no choice. We should collaborate with them and liquidate immediately during, or after, the revolution. And I volunteer to carry out the task".^[56]

Then Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, right, and Saddam Hussein as seen in Baghdad, 1978.

The 17 July Revolution was a military coup, not a popular revolt against the incumbent government. According to Coughlin, compared to the coups of 1958 and 1963, the 1968 coup was a "relatively civil affair". The coup begun in the early morning of 17 July when the military and Ba'ath Party activists the seized several key positions in Baghdad, such as the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, television and radio stations and the electricity station. All the city's bridges were captured, all telephone lines were cut and at exactly 03:00, the order was given to march on the Presidential Palace. President Arif was asleep and had no control over the situation.^[57] al-Bakr masterminded the plot,^[58] but Hussein and Saleh Omar al-Ali led operations on the ground.^[57] A power struggle, between the Ba'ath Party led by al-Naif and the military led by Daud, which al-Bakr had anticipated and planned, began.^[59] Daud lost his ministership during an official visit to Jordan, while al-Naif was exiled after Hussein threatened him and his family with death.^[60]

At the time of the 1968 coup, only 5,000 people were members;^[61] by the late 1970s it had increased to 1.2 million.^[62] In 1974, the Iraqi Ba'athists formed the National Progressive Front to broaden support for the government's initiatives. Wrangling within the party continued, and the government periodically purged its dissident members,^[63]including Fuad al-Rikabi, the party's first Secretary General of the Regional Command.^[64] Emerging as the party strongman,^[65] Hussein used his growing power^[66] to push al-Bakr aside in 1979 and ruled Iraq until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.^[67] Under al-Bakr's tenure, Iraq experienced its most dramatic and successful period of economic growth,^[68] with its citizens enjoying standards of healthcare, housing, education and earnings comparable with those of European countries.^{[citation needed]} Several major infrastructures were laid down to assist the country's growth,^[69] and the Iraqi oil industry was nationalised^[70] with help from the Soviet Union; Alexei Kosygin, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, signed the bilateral Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1972.^[66]

Insurgency: 2003–present[edit]

In June 2003, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority banned the Ba'ath Party, and banned all members of the party's top four tiers from the new government, and from public schools and colleges – a move which some citicised for blocking too many experienced people from participating in the new government. Thousands were removed from their positions, including doctors, professors, school teachers and bureaucrats. Many teachers lost their jobs, causing protests and demonstrations at schools and universities. Under the Ba'ath Party, one could not reach high positions in the government or in schools without becoming a party member. Membership was also a prerequisite for university admission. While many Ba'athists joined for ideological reasons, many more joined as a way to improve their options. After much pressure by the US, the policy of de-Ba'athification was addressed by the Iraqi government in January, 2008 in the highly controversial "Accountability and Justice Act" which was supposed to ease the policy, but which many feared would lead to further dismissals.^[71]

The new Constitution of Iraq approved by a referendum on 15 October 2005, reaffirmed the Ba'ath Party ban, stating that "No entity or program, under any name, may adopt racism, terrorism, the calling of others infidels, ethnic cleansing, or incite, facilitate, glorify, promote, or justify thereto, especially the Saddamist Ba'ath in Iraq and its symbols, regardless of the name that it adopts. This may not be part of the political pluralism in Iraq."

Following Saddam Hussein's execution on 30 December 2006, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party choose the former Vice Chairman of The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri as the party's new leader. Despite al-Douri's succession, another high ranking Ba'athist, Younis al-Ahmed, called for a General Conference of the Iraqi Ba'ath party in Syria to elect a new leadership. This move caused a significant amount of controversy within the party, with al-Douri issuing a statement criticizing Syria for what al-Douri claimed was an American supported attempt to undermine the Iraqi Ba'ath party, although this statement was later downplayed. The conference elected al-Ahmed as Secretary General, and al-Ahmed issued an order expelling al-Douri from the party, resulting in al-Douri issuing a counter order expelling al-Ahmed and 150 other party members. These events have led to there existing in effect two Iraqi Ba'ath Partys; the main party led by al-Douri, and a splinter party led by al-Ahmed.^[72]

On 17 December 2008, the New York Times reported that up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general had been arrested over the three previous days accused of quietly working to reconstitute the Ba'ath Party.^[73]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

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