Campaign to liquidate 3,000 Baathists in southern Iraq

Source: Azzaman

Militias belonging to Shiite religious factions in southern Iraq have embarked on a murderous campaign to liquidate 3,000 members of the Baath party of former leader Saddam Hussein.

The campaign is reported to have terrorized residential quarters in several cities in the south since scores of former Baathists have been killed recently in the area.

Informed sources refusing to be named said the militias have 3,000 more names on their ‘liquidation lists’ and many former Baathists are reported to have gone into hiding.

The so-called policy of debaathification, started by the first U.S. Iraq consul Paul Bremer, is believed to be one of the reasons behind current violence and instability in the country.



Read more: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2007-07-23/kurd.htm

government in Iraq'?

Gee, an oppressed majority gets power back at the point of a rifle and turns on its tormentors at the behest of their bloody liberators. Who could have predicted that?

The so-called policy of debaathification, started by the first U.S. Iraq consul Paul Bremer, is believed to be one of the reasons behind current violence and instability in the country.



Former Baathists were banned from assuming posts in the government or employment in the public sector. Many had their property and belongings expropriated.



As a result hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and means of living, fueling resentment and anger at U.S. occupation troops and the government.



Analysts say the militias are keen to liquidate as many former Baathists as possible before the parliament, under pressure from the U.S., reverses measures that have led to their dismissal from government jobs.

Particularly after they sought to and largely succeeded in physically eliminating the progressive political forces in Iraq. But this fundamentalist drive cannot help in any way and will make things worse. Eventually new progressive forces will emerge in that country.

Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc said Wednesday it has suspended its membership in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government, dealing a new setback to the Shiite leader's efforts to achieve national reconciliation.

The Iraqi Accordance Front, which has six Cabinet members as well as 44 of parliament's 275 seats, said it was giving al-Maliki a week to meet their demands or it would quit his 14-month-old Cabinet altogether.

"The Accordance Front announces the suspension of its membership in the government," Sheik Khalaf al-Elyan said at a news conference attended by the two other leaders of the three-party Accordance Front _ Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi of the Iraqi Islamic Party and Adnan al-Dulaimi of the Congress of the People of Iraq. Al-Elyan leads the National Dialogue Council.

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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766061003&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Looks like its official;
The good Ole days are over ( and they aint commin back ) for the party of repression. Guess the "purge" of the Baathists is what broke the camel riders back.

Let them pout and seethe . Maybe they sense a final showdown is at hand and want to get out of Baghdad before something big happens.