Documents Reveal Extent of Baath Party Rule

It is called Punishment Law 111, Section 200, otherwise known as the “execution section.”

Discovered in a document in this southern Iraq town’s Baath Party headquarters, the rule states, in essence, that the death penalty is mandatory for party disloyalty. That includes hiding one’s previous membership in another political party. Joining another political party while a Baath Party member also is a capital offense.

As Saddam Hussein and his ruling Baath Party lose control of significant portions of Iraq, more details are emerging on how his regime has maintained control and regulated the daily life of Iraqis for a quarter of a century.

Besides the punishment rules, documents obtained by The Times show how, even in a small town such as this, the Baath Party leadership has tightly controlled the Iraqi people.

Take, for instance, the party membership application of a woman named Entesar Abdul Jabar.

What runs through it is the obsession with absolute loyalty to the party and, by extension, its leader.

In the application, she affirms that she’s never worked with anyone who spoke ill of or worked against the party’s interests, never been punished by the party, nor have any of her close male relatives.

Jabar, an administrative secretary and mother of seven, is listed as a member of the Al Quds army set up by Hussein to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli rule. She received training in the use of machine guns and writes that her “favorite weapon” is the Kalashnikov rifle, which she’d learned to use during a course offered by the 2nd Basra Army.

“I totally believe in all the standards of the Baath Party and consider it the one true glory that serves the interests of the Arab world,” she said in a handwritten submission. “Please accept me in the Baath ranks so I can employ my beliefs and weapons in the fight for truth and whatever the Baath asks me to do.”

On several pages accompanying her application, each of which is prominently stamped “top secret,” senior Baath Party members pass judgment on her application, assess her character and outline her duties. They attest that she’s never worked at an embassy, never been abroad, never been captured, and that the state has not seen fit to execute any of her friends or relatives.

Her best attribute, they conclude, is her calm nature. They direct her to spy -- it’s not clear upon whom -- and to pass on what she learns to higher-ranking party officials.

Evidence such as this found since the capture of the town by American and British forces makes clear that the Baath control has been near absolute, said Maj. Paul Nanson of the British Army’s 1st Fusiliers, whose troops now occupy it.

In a symbolic act designed to send a clear message to residents, the 1st Fusiliers used tanks to smash an image of Hussein that stood in front of the Baath headquarters, then turned the compound into an operational base.

“They very much controlled village life from here,” he said. “The electricity trip switch for the whole village was here. They had a whole armament here. There was a whole room of [surface-to-air] missiles. We’re not talking about a few pistols and rifles.”

Though residents have watched the building they feared for so long become a base for the British, they still worry that Baath Party officials may return and exact retribution.

Indeed, some still see evidence of the long arm of the Baath Party. On Thursday, word spread that the British, in a gesture of goodwill, planned to turn the nearby Basra Refinery police station into a clinic. On Friday morning, the building was set ablaze.

“You’ve got to believe someone overheard us,” said Maj. Doug Stillmack of the 402nd Civil Affairs attached to Britain’s 7th Brigade. “It’s very disappointing. It’s fully engulfed. I didn’t see any fire a few hours ago when we passed.”

Later, smoke still billowed from several of the building’s front windows, caused by smoldering mattresses where policemen once slept.

“It’s very possible the Baath set this fire,” said Jasim Mohamed Shibl, 40, an employee at the local refinery. “They’re very jealous and angry right now and want to create chaos.”

A few symbols of the old regime remained untouched by the blaze. The jail cell was intact with nothing on the cement floor but a few flea-ridden blankets. A Baath manifesto hung on the wall.

Jhalid Ibrahim, 13, surveyed the smoldering ashes looking for anything to scavenge. “I’m very happy it’s burning,” he said. “My friends were locked up in there, accused of stealing. They were beaten and tortured. I’m very afraid of this place.”

Resting on the ground nearby, all but forgotten in the chaos, was a copy of the tract: “Principles, a Way to Life, and its Crown,” by Hussein.

Among the lessons in the booklet said to be drawn from past wars are:

* Don’t provoke a snake before you have the intention of cutting its neck.

* If you don’t intend to fight to the death, observe your enemy realistically, expose his true intention as an attacker and let the final punch and hit be yours.

Those who have crossed the Baath Party for any reasons say retribution is swift and severe. “They used a heated knife and cut me here with a machete,” said Adnan Mohamed Yousef, 32, a soldier who deserted in 1998. He lifted his sleeves and pant legs to show several long, distended scars. “It was so painful. They also used electric shocks on me.”

Yousef’s story could not be independently corroborated, but human rights experts say it’s in keeping with a clearly documented pattern.

Yousef said he was caught and placed in the Laith Abid jail in Basra under a seven-year sentence during which he was tortured for three months. He said jailers tried to get him to admit he was either an Iranian, an Iranian agent or an enemy of the Baath Party. At the end of each session, he said, they would toss him into a tiny cell the size of a dog cage.

After three months, he said, he was forced to sign a confession even though he couldn’t read and didn’t know what it said.

He was then transferred to a jail near Baghdad, serving out four years of his sentence, he said, before a general amnesty was declared last year.

With no real prospects, he returned to the army and was forced until recently to plant land mines against the Kurds in the north, even though he’s of Kurdish extraction.

“I’m very happy now,” he said. “I won’t really be able to relax, however, until Baghdad falls.”