Baath members hard to avoid in talk of new Iraqi government

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi doctors in white lab coats took to the streets Wednesday chanting, "New clean era!" insisting they won't accept the U.S.-appointed Health Ministry chief because of his ties to Saddam Hussein's regime.

But for the United States, weeding out the true believers from Saddam's Baath party will not be easy: Membership was required for top officials and most bureaucrats, and many educated, capable Iraqis joined the party.

As they seek out competent people not linked to the abuses and excesses of Saddam's era, Iraq's American administrators must figure out who is a threat and who isn't.

"You've got two categories -- the people that joined just so they wouldn't be in danger or so they could conduct business, and those who joined and are closer to being his henchmen," said Lt. Col. Richard Whittaker of Tullahoma, Tenn., the No. 2 legal officer in the 101st Airborne Division.

"Very tricky," added one of his deputies, Capt. John Boyer.

U.S. officials point to Germany after World War II as an example in which a totalitarian society was successfully restructured. But getting rid of the Baath could prove even more difficult.

It ruled for 34 years -- almost three times as long as the Nazis -- and most Iraqis have no memory of when things were different.

Some 1.5 million of Iraq's 24 million people are believed to have been party members. Generations of children were indoctrinated in its pan-Arab ideology, and almost all top Iraqi officials were required to sign up.

Students at top universities often had to join the party and attend indoctrination meetings. Many children were members of the Baath Pioneers. Others said they were pressured to join.

Forced membership

"The old system forced every Iraqi to be a member," said Husain al-Saeedi, a pharmacist and one of the medical protesters, who marched with their clip-on ID cards and, in one case, a pocket full of tongue depressors.

The Health Ministry appointment that so angered al-Saeedi and his colleagues serves as an example of how difficult the Americans' task will be. On Saturday, the U.S. civil administration named Ali Shnan al-Janabi, No. 3 at the ministry under Saddam, to head the agency.

Stephen Browning, a U.S. official, said as he announced the appointment that al-Janabi was a "Baath party member who is not associated with criminal activities or human rights abuses or weapons of mass destruction."

"So," Browning said, "we are happy to work with him."

Other Baath party members have been appointed to senior posts. On Monday, a former general was chosen to head the town of Mosul. The Foreign Ministry's new interim head was a top official in that ministry under Saddam.

And on Wednesday, an Iraqi military officer who fought the United States during the 1991 Gulf War was appointed by the Americans as governor of Saddam's home province.

In the hospital protest, some of the 400 doctors and pharmacists demanding al-Janabi's removal confronted Browning near a popular hotel and challenged his decision.

Before the war, al-Janabi "was a faithful servant of Saddam," said Dr. Imad Saud, a resident in cardiothoracic surgery. "How can we trust him?"

"We tolerated war and death for one thing -- to get rid of this regime," Saud said. "The regime should be changed from its roots to its branches."

Browning defended al-Janabi as someone who "wants to be part of the solution." But he agreed to meet with the doctors again. Such willingness to listen is part of the Americans' balancing act.

"Like most other totalitarian regimes, most of the people that worked in running the country were part of the party," said Jay Garner, head of the American-run civil administration.

"Some were good, some were bad," he said Wednesday. "You bring everybody back, and you can sort out who was good and who was bad. It takes time."

Al-Janabi offered to step down after elections were held for his replacement. He had no other comment. Browning offered to meet Thursday with a committee of doctors to discuss their demands.

Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, British head of the international section of the civil administration, said some members of the former regime have already been blocked from participating in the new government.

Some people at the Interior Ministry have been asked not to return, he said, and at the Ministry of Planning, some of the senior leadership are being asked to take extended leave.

As the process continues, the Americans face thousands of personnel decisions on every level in every region. Their best hope: that they pick the right people for Iraq's future without retaining some of those responsible for its past.

"All of the skilled, competent and ambitious people in the country were basically members," said Kenneth M. Pollack of The Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank. "If you punished every one of those people, you would be eliminating the people most needed to rebuild Iraqi society."