BAGHDAD, April 22: Some senior Iraqi officials sacked in a purge of those connected with Saddam Hussein's government will be brought back in an overhaul of the policy
, a spokesman for the US-led administration said on Thursday.
Dan Senor suggested the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council had gone overboard in preventing former senior members of the Baath Party from returning to work. "We want it to be implemented in the way it was designed," Mr Senor told a news conference.
Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, would address Iraqis over television on Friday on the issue, he added. Mr Senor said there was "no room in the new Iraq" for former Baathist involved in "crimes and brutality", but skilled people who were Baath members in name only should be welcomed back.
The original plan, he said, was to allow an appeals procedure to identify those untainted by charges of excesses and allow them to help rebuild Iraq. "The appeals process sometimes has been slower in implementation than was originally designed" and thousands of Iraqis had complained to Mr Bremer about it, he said.
Last week, a few former Iraqi generals were brought back to help run the nascent armed forces being created to replace those disbanded by Mr Bremer last year. A US military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmet, said more former Iraqi officials would be recruited.
"As the organization gets bigger, there's going to be a need for high-ranking officers," he said. "Obviously this is not a skill level you can get in a matter of weeks." The United States is also considering a policy change to allow some ex-Baathists join an interim government being put together by the United Nations, the White House said.
"We are reviewing how the policies are being implemented and looking at how we can better balance the need for expertise and experience that some Iraqis have with the need for justice," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Mr McClellan said there was a need for experienced people in the Iraqi government. "You want to make sure that people are being held accountable and being brought to justice, but you also have to balance that and look at the need to have expertise in the sectors within Iraq," he said.
Mr Bremer dissolved the armed forces, security services and defence and information ministries soon after he arrived in Iraq last May. The move, which threw 400,000 people out of work, has been criticized for providing a recruiting pool of armed and angry men for fledgling guerilla groups. -Reuters
S. African shot dead
A South African security guard was shot dead in Baghdad on Thursday. A gunman armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle shot and killed the South African, who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority, in the capital's Adhamiya district, interim health minister Khodayyir Abbas said.
The South African protected members of the CPA working at the ministry. News of the slaying came as officials announced the release of three hostages. -AFP
