IRAQ: 12 people die and 150 are injured in truck bomb attack The Grand Ayatollah's stance will set the Iraqi government on a collision course with the Bush administration, writes Michael Jansen
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's opposition to a Bill granting former Baathists the right to take up positions in government is likely to torpedo the measure in cabinet.
The ayatollah, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, expressed his views on the measure through an aide, Sheikh Mehdi Karbalai, in a sermon delivered during last Friday's communal prayers and during an interview with Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the de-Baathification commission.
He takes the line that adoption of the law could pave the way for the return to "important jobs" of "criminal individuals from the security agencies of the former regime". Iraq's other three grand ayatollahs concur.
The draft law was submitted for cabinet approval last month ahead of submission to parliament.
Rejection of the legislation could put prime minister Nuri al- Maliki's government on collision course with the Bush administration, which laid down four tasks to be performed by the end of June. The first was reversal of the 2003 de-Baathification edict issued by Paul Bremer, the US chief administrator.
This decree was reaffirmed by Iraq's subsequent governments and enshrined in the controversial 2005 constitution. The other tasks are setting a date for regional elections, adoption of measures for the just distribution of oil revenues and amending the constitution. All four are meant to bring into the political process Sunnis, Shias and secularists who held positions of authority during the reign of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
Officers and soldiers dismissed by Mr Bremer when he dissolved the armed forces and police form the backbone of the nationalist resistance, while Sunnis and secularists who lost civil service jobs are said to give logistical backing and moral support to the insurgency.
Since the al-Maliki government took office last May, the Bush administration has been pressing for reconciliation with Sunnis, secularists and non-fundamentalist Shias, but the Shia fundamentalists and Kurds who are in power have resisted this pressure. Little has been done to ease the alienation of excluded groups.
Although Shia fundamentalists were suppressed by the Baathists, 60 per cent of members of the party and military were Shias and Shias held high posts in government. Among them were Saadoun Hammadi, who served as prime minister, oil minister and speaker; Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, foreign and information minister, and Amer al-Saadi, industry and military industry minister.
The ruling clique comprised Saddam Hussein's clansmen from Tikrit, chosen for family ties not sect.