Word: baathists
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Kirkuk, with its mixed population of Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans, has long had the potential to be a sectarian powder keg. Under Saddam's Baathist regime, the Iraqi government forced out a large number of the city's majority Kurdish population and resettled the city with Arabs from the south. Now ethnic tensions are erupting as Kurds demand the return of Kirkuk to their control. The day I visited in March, a series of two car bombs and three roadside bombs killed 18 people. On April 1, at least 15 people, including eight schoolchildren, died in a suicide truck bombing...
...Kirkuk, with its mixed population of Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans, has long had the potential to be a sectarian powder keg. Under Saddam's Baathist regime, the Iraqi government forced out a large number of the city's majority Kurdish population, and resettled the city with Arabs from the south. Now ethnic tensions have flared as Kurds are demanding the return of Kirkuk to their control. The day I visited last month, a series of two car bombs and three roadside bombs killed 18 people. On April 1, at least 15 people died in a suicide truck bombing...
Damascus may not have that card for long. Internally, the refugee issue poses long-term dilemmas for the Baathist regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The presence of so many needy Iraqis has exposed the government's failure to make economic reforms. The Syrian government--dominated by a secular core of Alawite Muslims who rule a country that is 74% Sunni Muslim--may have to stop the influx as a measure of self-preservation. Assad is particularly concerned about extremists re-entering the country from Iraq, according to Syrian security analysts. "We used to call them the Afghan Arabs...
...aftermath of Iraq's first war with the United States, with the country's southern provinces devastated and the Baathist regime engaged in ferocious repression of Shi'a, Iraqis migrated throughout the area looking for work and safety. In this environment, migrants from the city of Hilla bought the land near Najaf and built a miniature community complete with bakery and infirmary. It also included a school where the sect taught its beliefs. The arrival of this new group raised few eyebrows. It's not unusual in rural areas of Iraq for extended families to buy property and then bring...
...complicity in Saddam's execution dates back to 2003, when the Administration refused to consider the establishment of an international tribunal to try Saddam and his henchmen. Even before the fall of Baghdad, State Department working groups had begun drafting plans to prosecute Baathist leaders for war crimes. As documented by the International Center for Transitional Justice, the U.S. insisted that the war-crimes trials would follow "an Iraqi-led" process. Though the U.S. said it welcomed international participation in the trials, Administration officials pointedly ruled out th e idea of creating international courts modeled on the U.N.-run tribunals...