11.1 |
De-Ba’athification
that the
word “disestablished” should be replaced with “dissolved” or
something with
the same
meaning.
15.
Commenting on
a subsequent draft of the text on 10 April, Mr Llewellyn
explained:
“The
paragraph dissolving the Ba’ath party is clearly important. But the
word
‘disestablished’
does not really do the trick. That word is something to do
with
removing an
institution from the structure of the state, as I understand it. We
should
16.
On 11 April,
during a video conference between UK, US and Australian
legal
advisers,
the US lawyers explained that they saw a need to disestablish the
Ba’ath Party
and deprive
it of all authority “in order for other things to happen as a
result from the
legal and
policy point of view”.9
17.
On 11 April,
Mr Llewellyn circulated a first draft of guidelines for UK
personnel,
in
particular those seconded to ORHA, on the relevant provisions of
International
Humanitarian
Law (IHL).10
Under the
heading “Removal of Officials”, it stated:
“Officials
may be removed, although this should not be done arbitrarily.
Clearly, the
Coalition
will remove from office those who were members of Saddam
Hussein’s
regime, and
senior members of the Ba’ath Party if any remain. Other officials
may
be removed
where they represent an obstacle to administration by the
Coalition, for
example
because they pose a threat to security, are corrupt, unwilling to
act under
Coalition
administration, or will be intimidating for the
population.”
18.
A senior MOD
legal adviser to whom the draft guidelines were sent for
comment
suggested
that the guidelines should be more precise about what was meant
by
“members of
Saddam Hussein’s regime” and “senior members of the Ba’ath
Party”.11
She asked
whether it was likely there would be anyone who would fall into the
first
category
who did not also fall within the second.
19.
The Inquiry
has not seen evidence that any discussion of the degree to which
former
members of
the Ba’ath Party might be entitled to participate in the Iraqi
Interim Authority
(IIA) took
place at the conference held in Nasiriyah on 15 April and attended
for the UK
by
Mr Edward Chaplin, FCO Director Middle East and North
Africa.12
20.
There is a
mention in one of the supporting papers, produced by the
FCO’s
Research
Analysts, of the need to establish whether members of Iraq’s
popular councils
could be
used in the selection of members for the IIA given that they had
previously
8
Minute
Llewellyn to Bristow, 10 April 2003, ‘Freedom Message to the Iraqi
People’.
9
Minute
[unattributed], [undated], ‘American Summary Points, Video Link:
Friday 11 April’.
10
Minute
Llewellyn to Rose, 11 April 2003, ‘Iraq: Guidelines on the
Application of Laws of Occupation’.
11
Minute Rose
to Llewellyn, 22 April 2003, ‘Iraq: Guidelines on the Application
of Laws of Occupation’.
12
Letter
Chaplin to Crocker, 17 April 2003, ‘Setting up the Iraqi Interim
Authority: Issues for Discussion’
attaching
Paper FCO, 2 April, ‘Post‑conflict Iraq: a “Baghdad
Conference”’.
5