Reports: Iraq to hold Baathist engagement meeting, says minister

Apr 12, 2009, 14:31 GMT

Baghdad - Iraq's National Reconciliation Minister said Iraq will hold a meeting later this month to discuss the participation of former Baath party members in politics, a local newspaper said Sunday.

'The Iraqi government seeks to hold a meeting to resolve this sensitive issue and to form a unified national stance to the issue,' Minister Akram al-Hakim told state-controlled al-Sabah newspaper.

Al-Hakim, who is touring several Arab countries, told the Egyptian Foreign Minister he was seeking to draw opposition groups into politics, especially that the parliamentary elections are near and 'makes necessary the participation of all the Iraqi peoples' representatives,' the paper reported.

The Baath party, which is banned by the Iraqi constitution, ruled Iraq from 1968 until the US ousted former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The party was accused of conducting murders and genocides against the Iraqi people, especially Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiites in the southern parts of Iraq.

The minister asserted that he will only meet with moderate opposition members and those not personally accused of crimes. 'The meetings will only be with those who did not commit any crimes against the Iraqi people,' al-Hakim told the paper.

Al-Hakim said former Baathist members still hold governmental positions, but that they work under different political parties and blocs because working with the Baath party is unconstitutional.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the Baath party for a series of seven bombings in Baghdad on Monday, a day before the anniversary of their party. Al-Maliki described the attacks as 'a gift of the disbanded Baath party on the ill omen of its anniversary.'