Fifty officials and police officers arrested for plotting coup
Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Between 35 and 50 Interior Ministry officials and police officers have been arrested in the past few days, charged with trying to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party and organise a coup. AsiaNews sources in the Iraqi capital confirmed the report.
Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, spoke to AsiaNews about the affair, confirming what the Arab and Iraqi news media have been reporting it.
“TV stations are saying that a number of arrests have been made; from 35 to 50,” said the patriarch’s vicar. “They include Shiites and Sunnis, from the northern part of Iraq.”
“In the last three days elite security forces have arrested former army generals, policemen and former officials from Saddam Hussein’s Baath party”.
According to early reports four army generals were among those arrested, including General Ahmed Abu Raqeef, the Interior ministry's director of internal affairs. However, AFP ran a different story quoting official sources saying that the plot was uncovered thanks to the general.
According to Abdul Karim Khalaf, an Iraqi army major, the arrests were due to alleged links of those involved with the ‘al-Awda’ (Return) movement which is thought of planning to re-establish the former dictator’s party and take on its mantle. The alleged plotters are said to have paid huge bribes to be hired by the Interior Ministry and appointed to top positions.
“This is really serious which goes on top of ongoing bomb attacks across the country, from Kirkuk in the north to Baghdad,” said Bishop Warduni.
Ira’s situation is “never-ending chaos” and the “government is hard pressed to keep a lid on things,” the prelate said. “The result is that peace and security are still far, in the distant future.” In the meantime “the civilian population” pays for the political games that split Iraq.
Other issues though might be behind these arrests, connected to a power struggle within the government. Some critics in fact accuse Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of jailing political adversaries “to consolidate power” before next month’s provincial elections.
As for Al-Maliki, his abhorrence for Baath goes back a long way. A Shia Muslim, he was one of tens of thousands of people who were persecuted or murdered by Saddam’s henchmen, who were drawn mostly from the country’s Sunni minority which ran the country until the United States took Baghdad in April 2003.
The Baath’s original platform was progressive and socialist as the party sought to modernise and secularise the country, but with the rise of Saddam Hussein the country turned into a dictatorship. When he fell from power the party was banned and its leaders removed from office. Saddam himself was executed on 30 December 2006.
In February 2008, almost five years after the fall of the regime, Iraq’s Presidential Council approved a controversial bill, the ‘Justice and Accountability Act’, which paved the way for former low-ranking Baath officials to re-enter the public service.
Under this so-called “de-baathification” law passed by Iraq’s National assembly on 12 January, low-and middle-ranking Baath party officials (about 38,000) could go back to work for the government; all former Baath party members were also granted a pension to. A ban remained in place only for top party officials.
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