(New York Times) Senior Baath Party officials are working openly in many Iraqi cities and many party members are insinuating themselves into leading positions under the American administration. Hundreds of Iraqi doctors, nurses, and health workers demonstrated Wednesday against a decision by the American authorities in Baghdad to appoint Ali al-Janabi, a senior Baath Party member, to be minister of health. Last week, U.S. officials decided to reinstate Saddam Hussein's personal physician, Muhammad al-Rawi, as president of Baghdad University. A committee of faculty members demanded new elections for deans, department heads, and administrators as a means to throw out Dr. Rawi and the other senior Baathists at the university. They also demanded that the university groundskeepers tear down a statue of Mr. Hussein. When American officials would not meet with them, they went to the headquarters of Ahmad Chalabi, an opposition leader who returned from exile to help form an interim government, whose security staff organized a raid on the university. The Hussein statue was leveled by an armored vehicle and its head cut off and returned like a trophy to the lawn of Mr. Chalabi's headquarters.
2003-05-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive