The economic and political future of Iraq depends on the supremacy of law to differentiate between genuine regime criminals and the vast majority of innocent Iraqis, writes Ayad Allawi
With the capture of Saddam Hussein, a brutal chapter in our country's history has closed, and a new chapter of hope and peace waits to be written. We Iraqis are now finally free to plot a course to peace and prosperity for ourselves, our children and future generations - a daunting, breathtaking prospect that will take patience, wisdom and painful soul-searching to realise.
The arrest of Saddam was itself a profound act in the building of our new national character. The process of dealing with him in the courts will test the rule of law in Iraq and, more important, force all Iraqis to think about our past and drive us to overcome it. With Saddam gone, an intimate process of national reconciliation and justice must take place in Iraq. The world will be watching us.
Let there be no doubt. The people of Iraq are yearning to punish the criminals who oppressed us, killed our family members and debased our national institutions. But we want justice, not vengeance. We have laboured too long and suffered too much under the heel of those who wielded unchecked power. That is why the Iraqi Governing Council has made the decision to set up war crimes tribunals to try the people who committed heinous crimes against Iraqis over the past three decades of Baathist rule. The tribunal process will be transparent and fully underpinned by law so that Iraqis can be confident that our new system will be founded on the principles of justice for the victims and punishment for the wicked - yet under full legal protection for all. We all know who the first person on the docket will be.
Unfortunately, the current, indiscriminate policy of "de-Baathification" - the wholesale purging of Iraqis who joined the Baath Party to get a job - does not contribute to economic reconstruction, political stability or the cause of justice and national reconciliation.
It is an indiscriminate policy, not based on legal process, that can actually subvert the rule of law before it takes root. Economic de-Baathification sets a dangerous precedent and harms the interests of the Iraqi people, as well as of those who seek to help Iraq.
The goals of de-Baathification include the blacklisting of Iraqi and foreign businesses and individuals who conducted legitimate business with the former Baathist government. But unlike a truly transparent and judicious process that safeguards due process and protects the innocent, the current process functions as a sort of star chamber, giving extrajudicial power to a small group of people holding letters of attainder. Such a process is patently vulnerable to corruption by vested interests and can create a legal culture of false accusations, corruption and cronyism, undermining justice as well as free-market competition. Iraqis must have what all democratic, free-market societies depend on: a transparent judicial process, rooted in law, that will build confidence in our institutions, punish the guilty, protect the innocent and promote genuine national reconciliation.
Twenty years ago, when I was living in London, my wife and I were seriously injured because Saddam sent his thugs to our home to kill us. We could have sought vengeance against this vicious criminal.
Instead, a few weeks ago a Baghdad court took the first step toward imposing justice by convicting Saddam in absentia for our attempted murder. Now my wife and I, along with my fellow countrymen, wait patiently for all the evidence of this man's crimes to be gathered so that justice will finally be done. Vengeance, including vengeance carried out through indiscriminate de-Baathification, has already cost Iraq dearly. Overnight we saw most of the civil bureaucracy disbanded and many honest civil servants unjustly sent home penniless.
Without a functioning civil service, local and foreign businesses lack the most basic legal, political and social framework for operating. In a single stroke, we also sent home 400,000 trained Iraqi soldiers, most of them patriots, and created a vacuum in which insurgents, terrorists and criminals have flourished. And just recently, hundreds, if not thousands, of schoolteachers were fired for having joined the Baath Party. To become a teacher or school official, every hard-working, honest educator had to join the party. Their only crime was a desire to feed their families.
If we are to turn our beloved Iraq into a stable and prosperous country, we cannot abandon our most educated and skilled people. We cannot afford to bring undue economic hardship to thousands of families. Most of all, we cannot once again allow those in power to have unchecked authority to accuse, purge or incarcerate.
The economic and political future of our country depends first and foremost on the supremacy of law. Our national reconciliation depends on establishing clear legal mechanisms to differentiate between genuine regime criminals and the vast majority of innocent Iraqis who joined the party to survive. - (LA Times - Washington Post Service)
- Ayad Allawi is a member of the Presidential Committee of the Iraqi Governing Council and co-ordinator of Iraq's Supreme Security Committee.