11.1 |
De-Ba’athification
would be
your agreeing a mechanism with Bremer whereby we become a
joint
signatory
on any CPA decisions …
“At the
very least, we must be properly consulted on decisions. This may
involve
advocating
the creation of a small policy body in which we are represented,
to
ensure that
we have a say when you are not in town.”
89.
Following a
message from Baghdad reporting progress against the IPU’s list
of
priorities,
the IPU wrote to Mr Sawers on 20 June:
“While we
agree on the need to act decisively to dismantle the Ba’athist
state, we
need to
keep plugging away that it is the system, not the people forced to
live in it,
that we
want to destroy.”84
90.
On 24 June,
Baroness Amos, the International Development Secretary, was
asked
about the
policy of de‑Ba’athification in the House of Lords.85
Lord Wright
asked whether
it was true
that the:
“… apparent
decision to exclude all former members of the Iraqi Ba’ath
party,
however
junior, from working is not only causing unemployment to a very
serious
extent in
Iraq but is excluding from the reconstruction process a number of
highly
qualified
people who would be very ready to undertake those
tasks?”
91.
Baroness Amos
replied:
“… the
de‑Ba’athification process is under constant discussion. No
decisions have
yet been
taken. There was a concern that the first three levels should
perhaps be
excluded.
The implications of that in terms of the administration in Iraq is
being
looked at.
What we want to see is Iraqis working to reconstruct the
country.”
92.
On 25 June, in
a telephone conversation with Mr Colin Powell, US
Secretary
of State,
Mr Straw said that “de‑Ba’athification had gone too far” and
the UK was
concerned.86
He
suggested that if the same approach had been taken in
Germany
after the
Second World War, it would have taken a lot longer to establish a
working
democracy
in West Germany. Secretary Powell agreed.
84
Telegram 16
FCO London to IraqRep, 20 June 2003, ‘Iraq:
Priorities’.
85
House of
Lords, Official
Report, 24 June
2003, columns 132‑133.
86
Letter
Straw to Manning, 26 June 2003, ‘Conversation with Colin Powell, 25
June’.
21