De-Baathification Statistics

Gilbert Achcar kindly shares his translation of the following from Al-Hayat:

' Ali al-Lami, member of the De-Ba’athification Commission, told Al-Hayat that the number of Ba’athists that were affected by De-Ba’athification “does not exceed 100,000 leading members out of 1 million Ba’athist in Iraq, of whom 80% were members of the first echelon [firqa] and are entitled to get back to their positions as ordinary civil servants without holding leading positions.”

Al-Lami added that “5,000 Ba’athists of those who were members of the 2nd echelon [shu’ba] and above are wanted because of crimes they have committed against the Iraqi people, including high-ranking members of the previous regime, some of whom fled the country after the regime fell while others have joined armed groups active within Iraq.”

He also said that “over 80% of those affected by the De-Ba’athification decree are instructors, teachers and other salaried from the Ministry of Education, where 18,000 Ba’athists were affected, 11,000 of whom were later exempted from the law.”

The Ministry of Industry and Mining comes second with 13,000 affected by De-Ba’athification, followed by the Ministry of Higher Education and the Interior Ministry, other Ministries having much lower proportions. He pointed to the fact that the De-Ba’athification Commission brought 50 actions in criminal courts against Ba’athists accused of crimes. '