The US-British coalition is to reward people who provide information leading to the arrest of former Iraqi Baath party leaders, Iraqi radio reported yesterday.
Citing a decree published by coalition forces, the radio report said: "The populace will be able to collect financial rewards in exchange for information that permits the arrest of high-ranking members of the Baath party." Accomplices to crimes committed by the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein were also targeted by the offer of unspecified monetary compensation.
The report continued: "It is forbidden to exhibit in government buildings or public places photos or statues of Saddam Hussein or other known members of the former regime." Mr Paul Bremer, the new US overseer of Iraq, last Friday published a decree banning all top-ranking Baath members from working in the civil service, a measure that could affect some 15,000-30,000 people.
His decree also banned portraits of Saddam in public places and government buildings, and ordered that Baath party members suspected of criminal acts be questioned and possibly imprisoned or placed under house arrest.
In power since 1968, the party controlled Iraq through cells scattered throughout the country, with the exception of northern Kurdish provinces that gained autonomy under protection of US-British air patrols in 1991. - (AFP)