Among the more surprising choices made by the top US overseer in
Iraq, Paul Bremer, known for his neo-conservative leanings, was to
allow communist Hamid Majid Mussa to sit on Iraq's new Governing
Council.
"He has two main concerns: preventing extremists taking the key
positions among the Shiites and keeping the economy going,"
explained one of the international advisors involved in the
selection process.
"He hesitated at first but became convinced that the communists
could prove a counterweight to the imams," he added, asking not to
be named.
Iraqi Communist Party official Numan Suhayel explains how the
selection was made: "The Americans and the British sent a delegation
to see us and then Hamid Majid met personally with Paul Bremer," he
says.
He insists the party's seat on the council has nothing to do with
power brokering but reflects the communists' standing in Iraq.
Another peculiarity is the abolition of the death penalty.
While US President George W. Bush (news
- web
sites) is a known advocate of capital punishment, with Texas
under his governorship singled out by human rights groups for its
level of executions, US authorities in Iraq have banned the
practice.
Other surprising decisions include reducing inequality in pay
scales for civil servants.
Bremer arrived in Baghdad on May 12 to be confronted by thousands
of public sector workers unpaid and out of work. One of his first
decisions was to double the minimum salary to 50,000 dinars (around
40 dollars) per month.
At the same time he cut the top salaries for senior management
from 1.2 million dinars (960 dollars) to 500,000 dinars (400
dollars).
But one decision that backfired was an attempt to get rid of
Iraq's 400,000-strong army with a one-off termination payment.
Under threat of armed insurrection, the coalition agreed to pay
monthly salaries to former soldiers not in the top tiers of Saddam
Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s Baath Party.
"Bremer's becoming an Iraqi. He's distancing himself more and
more from the Bush administration," one international advisor said
with a broad grin when asked to account for the top US official's
recent "eccentric" decisions.
