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Police officer sacked for Ba'ath links

BAGHDAD MAY 26. Security matters topped the agenda in Baghdad on Monday, with U.S. officials announcing the firing of a top-ranking police official because of his Ba'ath party ties and a soldier's death in a munitions dump explosion.

The soldier died in what appeared to be an accident in southern Iraq on Sunday, the same day residents said three Baghdad slum dwellers were killed when a leftover surface-to-air missile fell off a trailer and blew up. The four deaths illustrate the dangers of clearing the vestiges of violence even as post-war rebuilding efforts proceed. In his message marking the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, gave a special salute to ``the men and women in our nation's armed forces who are working with our coalition partners to restore civil order, provide critical humanitarian aid, and renew Afghanistan and Iraq.''

The U.S. officials running Iraq since the war ousted Saddam Hussein's regime want a new order untainted by the past. Abdul Razak al-Abasse, who had helped U.S. forces to recreate a police force, was ousted on Sunday by order of L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq.

Earlier this month, Mr. Bremer issued a decree that prevents up to 30,000 top members of Saddam's Ba'ath party from retaining any job in a future Iraqi government. The order is especially stringent for leaders of security departments.

A 33-year veteran of the force, Mr. Al-Abasse commanded the west Baghdad police force and was considered key to coaxing Baghdad's 4,000-odd police personnel to return to work and rebuild their looted station houses. But Mr. Al-Abasse was found to have had full Ba'ath membership.

``Security continues to be a concern,'' a U.N. spokeswoman, Veronique Taveau, told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday, citing unsafe roads, urban banditry and the persistent problem of illegal guns in the hands of ordinary people.

U.S. forces have been patrolling with Iraqi police and have tried to crack down on black-market weapons trade. The U.S.-led coalition also has ordered Iraqis to disarm by June 14. But the order was not a blanket one — small arms, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols are allowed in homes and businesses while public use is prohibited. — AP

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