IN A drastic policy volte-face the United States ordered the elimination of all Baathist influence in Iraq yesterday, banning up to 30,000 senior party members from any job in a future administration.

Paul Bremer, the newly appointed civilian administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said his intent was to “ensure that the representative government in Iraq is not threatened by Baathist elements returning to power and that those in positions of authority in the future are acceptable to the people of Iraq”.

Mr Bremer’s first major announcement reverses that of Jay Garner, his military predecessor, who urged all government workers to return to their jobs and insisted that only “cronies of Saddam Hussein or those involved in a violation of human rights” would be disqualified.

The two-page order, headlined “De-Baathification of Iraqi Society”, comes after US military officials accused Baathist armed gangs of carrying out attacks on US-led forces and deliberately trying to sabotage civilian facilities.

Senior party members — those holding the ranks of Regional Command Member, Branch Member, Section Member and Group Member — “are hereby removed from their positions and banned from future employment in the public sector”.

They will, the order says, “be evaluated for criminal conduct or threat to the security of the coalition,” and face possible detention or house arrest. Everyone in the top three layers of management in national government ministries or institutions, such as universities and hospitals, “shall be interviewed for possible affiliation with the Baath party and subject to investigation for criminal conduct and risk to security”. The order was timed to coincide with the Muslim holy day of Friday, when no one was in government offices. It also prohibits displays on government buildings or public spaces of Saddam’s likeness and Baath symbols and offers rewards for information leading to the capture of senior Baath members.

Critics will accuse Mr Bremer of pandering to the pro-American Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi, who had called for such measures and given warning of violence if top officials were not held to account.

It is unclear how the vetting process will be conducted in a society where hundreds of thousands of Iraqis held Baath party membership. Yesterday’s announcement is a tacit admission of failure on the part of those who advocated allowing Iraqis to return to work, then removing those “shopped” by their colleagues.

This led to several embarrassing cases, including the swift departure of two police chiefs — one called a “thief” to his face by a subordinate in front of The Times — and Dr Ali Shenan al-Janabi, the newly-appointed head of the Health Ministry.

Officials of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance conceded last night that they would lose some people with useful skills.

“De-Baathification will necessarily entail some inefficiency in the running of government. We understand that is a price we are willing to pay to be sure that we extirpate Baathism from Iraq’s society,” one said. The order was welcomed by many government workers who looked forward to the removal of talentless but loyal senior civil servants.

“This will improve things a lot because now we can have people in charge who care about the people,” Dr Mohammed Daham, the chief resident of the Saddam Children’s Hospital, said. “The Ministry of Health was full of people who were there because they were high up in the Baath party regardless of their qualifications. It was a faulty selection system that favoured party members. There are plenty of better qualified people to replace them.”

Others were not so happy. Kassem Ali al-Timimi, who admits having held senior membership in one of the banned categories, said last night that he knew at least 20 senior office holders who would lose their jobs, including heads of the Ministry of Industry, university deans and hospital directors. He protested that many members had “only obeyed orders”, and others joined because they believed in the movement’s ideology.

“What Bremer says will create many problems in the near future because he wants to fire all the Baath party members. They want to earn a living like anyone else, and the Americans will not let them,” he said.

“Many of the population of Iraq belonged to the Baath party. Why does Bremer want to lose their support? They couldn’t do anything. They were just obeying orders.”

The Arab Baath Socialist Party was founded in 1947 by Michel Aflaq, a Greek Orthodox Syrian from Damascus, to promote a renaissance of the Arab “nation” under the banners of unity, socialism and freedom. The Iraqi branch was created in 1951 and Saddam Hussein joined in 1956.

PoW grave found

A mass grave of about 600 missing Kuwaiti prisoners of war has been discovered in Iraq, an Iraqi group said yesterday.

The prisoners were taken from Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War, it is believed. Forty bodies have already been recovered.

Workers from the Iraqi National Congress made the find at an airbase at the town of Habbaniyah, northwest of Baghdad. Congress members were exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein but they have returned to Iraq. The group say that they uncovered the grave after tip-offs from locals.

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