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BAGHDAD - It is now seen as the most disastrous decision of the United States-led occupation of Iraq - the firing of hundreds of thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from their government jobs in April 2003.
Enacted by the Coalition Provisional Authority's head, Paul
Bremer, it created a powerful impetus that pushed former Baathists towards rebellion and many took up arms with the insurgents.
In a single swoop former officials and members of the Saddam-era security forces, many of them concentrated in the Sunni Triangle, were unemployed. It caused the impoverishment of whole communities, stoking up resentment to the presence of coalition troops.
Now with the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq around the corner, the country's Parliament has finally reversed the last vestiges of that ill-considered policy, passing new legislation yesterday that reinstates tens of thousands of former Baathists to the possibility of government employment. The new bill, approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of its 30 clauses, was requested by the US as part of efforts to reduce sectarian tension between Sunni and Shiites.
In the process it became the first piece of major legislation approved by the 275-seat Parliament.
"This law preserves the rights of the Iraqi people after the crimes committed by the Baath Party while also benefiting the innocent members of the party. This law provides a balance," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.
It was also welcomed by US President George W. Bush, visiting Kuwait, who said Iraq had taken "an important step toward reconciliation".
The new act - approved yesterday - is designed to lift restrictions on the rights of members of the now-dissolved Baath Party to fill government posts.
It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists dismissed from government jobs after the 2003 US invasion - a decision that deepened sectarian tensions between Iraq's majority Shiite and the once-dominant Sunni Arabs, who believed the firings targeted their community.
Strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification rules also meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies ended up unemployed.
The Bush Administration initially promoted de-Baathification but later claimed that Iraqi authorities went beyond even what the Americans had contemplated.
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