May 11, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1424

BAGHDAD, May 10: Iraq’s controversial US-appointed interim health chief caused a firestorm on Saturday when he refused to publicly renounce membership in the Baath party of former strongman Saddam Hussein.

Ali Shnan al-Janabi, a senior Baath member under Saddam, skipped out the back door of the health ministry after a heated press conference at which he was asked to confirm a pledge he had signed denouncing the party.

“The coalition forces have dissolved the Baath party. I’ve signed a paper renouncing my membership and we are following the new orders diligently,” he said following a meeting on Iraq’s battered health sector attended by more than 200 health professionals.

But when asked point-blank to renounce the Baath party, he refused.

“I say that question is incorrect. Maybe I don’t understand the question,” he said.

An intense focus has developed on Iraq’s health care system, which aid agencies say is in a critical state. Many Iraqi hospitals were either damaged in the US-led bombing campaign or during a wave of looting that followed Saddam’s downfall a month ago.

They were also badly affected by a dozen years of crippling UN sanctions, although the health ministry has been accused of adding to the problem through corruption and mismanagement of hospitals to the point that patients died needlessly.

The senior advisor to the ministry from the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) for post-war Iraq, Stephen Browning, defended Janabi’s appointment to the sensitive post.

He hailed “significant” reforms the temporary health chief announced at the meeting, especially measures to allow Iraqi doctors to practice more freely.

He said Janabi was named by doctors both inside and outside Iraq, as well as by groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, as “a respected and courageous doctor and administrator.”

“When I asked people about Dr. Ali Shnan’s character they assured me he was the man for the position,” he said.

But he added of any ministry employees not ready to denounce the former ruling party: “We certainly don’t want them to serve.”

“I can only say that (Janabi) signed a sworn statement saying he renounced the Baath party,” Browning said.

He also announced a private Iraqi company would start providing former soldiers to guard the health ministry, which was badly looted. Other private contractors would be hired to protect hospitals, some of which are currently being guarded by US army troops.

The US advisor said everyone who wanted to work with the health ministry would have to sign the anti-Baath pledge — the first of its kind — and that he was encouraging other ministries to draw up similar documents.

US officials have repeatedly said Baath party membership would not automatically disqualify people from jobs in post-war Iraq, and that the backgrounds of many who have already resumed work were still being checked.

“Under the old regime it was part of your identity, we had to be part of the party. I’m not an active member of the Baath party anymore,” Janabi told the press conference.—AFP