Iraq candidate locked in election limbo over Baath

Iskander Witwit: continuation of de-Baathification process could reverse Iraqi security gains.

HILLA, Iraq - Sitting in his living room, Iskander Witwit opens a dossier with documents he says exonerate him of the charges against him: that he is a supporter of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party.

With just days to go before Iraqis cast their ballots in the March 7 parliamentary poll, the 64-year-old deputy governor of Babil province is still not certain he will be allowed to run.

He feels persecuted and insists he is the victim of a conspiracy.

"I am in pain -- this is a conspiracy against Iraq's patriots," he says while sipping from a glass of tea and smoking a cigarette in his house in Hilla, capital of Babil about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

"If I am a Baathist, then everyone is a Baathist."

Witwit's case -- he was originally barred from running for election for alleged links to the Baath, was later reinstated, and may be barred again -- highlights the country's highly controversial "de-Baathification" program.

He was one of 511 election candidates barred from running for office by the Justice and Accountability Committee (JAC), a much-criticized body led by Ahmed Chalabi, who is himself running for parliament on a rival slate to Witwit's Iraqiya list.

Witwit was reinstated -- he holds up a document to prove it -- but the JAC says it has new information about him that could lead to him being barred once again.

According to Witwit, he rose to the rank of staff brigadier when he was forced to retire in 1991 after joining in a failed uprising against Saddam in the wake of that year's Gulf War.

He was never more than a "naseer", or low-level supporter, in the Baath Party, he says although the fact he rose to the rank of staff brigadier is cited by his opponents as indication that he supported the Baath party.

Witwit, a secular Shiite, adds that Saddam's regime accused him of smuggling people into neighboring Iran and of training some of his relatives to assassinate senior Baathists.

A panel of judges had previously said barred candidates could stand on the condition that their cases be examined after the election, with the possibility remaining that they could be eliminated if they were found to be Baathists. This ruling, however, was later reversed.

After the US-led invasion of 2003, Witwit became Babil's governor, but was forced out amid protests from religious figures over his military background. He left in January 2004 to become one of the US Coalition Provisional Authority's security advisers.

He also rejoined the army after the invasion, eventually retiring in 2007 as a brigadier general. In January 2009, he ran in provincial government elections and was voted in as Babil's deputy governor.

His relationship with the current Babil governor is acrimonious, though: Salman Zasser Taha al-Zargani insists he never joined the Baath party, despite himself having risen to director-level posts in north Iraq, and labels Witwit "unprofessional."

Asked whether he thought Witwit was a Baathist, Zargani, a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law alliance, replies: "As a private citizen, I am sure he is a Baathist. But as a governor, I must deal with official documents.

"We are starting to build a state -- it is like if land is distributed by lottery," he says, dismissing Witwit's concerns about the JAC. "The people granted land will say the process is good, the people who do not get land will say it is bad."

Sunni voters feel their community has been unfairly targeted in the bans, though JAC executive director Ali al-Lami says two-thirds of the candidates barred are Shiite. A boycott was once threatened but quickly ruled out.

Witwit warns that a continuation of the de-Baathification process could reverse Iraqi security gains and spark a repeat of the sectarian bloodshed that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.

"Iraq will become a lake of blood if this goes on," he says. "There will definitely be violence."

For Zargani, however, reconciliation with Baathists is a non-starter.

"Did the French reconcile with the Nazis?" the governor replies, when asked if members of the Baath party should be allowed back into the political process. "Did the Germans accept them?"

"This is the will of the Iraqi people. We will not back off."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37578.