Even as Syria’s nightmare continues, policy makers should consider the country’s future once hostilities end. Those planning for Syria’s “day after” should learn a lesson from the past and avoid an approach just adopted in Libya, and before that in Iraq, that will widen divisions rather than heal the wounds.
Libya’s parliament recently voted to bar many Gaddafi-era officials from public office in a move likely to sow further discord and undermine the country’s fragile transition toward democracy. The General National Congress passed the Political Isolation Law under the pressure of armed militias that laid siege to government ministries. The new law bans members of various groups from working in 20 categories of public service. Some of the excluded groups are fairly clearly defined, such as former senior officials under Gaddafi, but others are much vaguer, such as those judged to have shown a “hostile attitude toward the February 17 revolution.” The law even bars people who held office under Gaddafi but defected from him years ago or during the uprising and war that ended in his fall.
The parliament debated the new law for months. Yet, much of the wording is so vague that thousands of present and former officials and Libyan diplomats wonder if they are being denied the opportunity to help secure a better future for Libya since they are now prohibited from jobs in Libya’s foreign service, educational institutions and the interim government. They are also barred from joining trade unions. The parliament has even attempted to “immunize” the law from review by the highest court in Libya, to see if it complies with human rights.
“This is disastrous,” said one US-based Libyan diplomat. “How can we be punished after the huge efforts we invested in 2011 as diplomats, rallying and influencing the international community around our cause?” By excluding many former officials the new law will alienate a large proportion of the people who helped run Libya during the past four decades. Officials responsible for the human rights abuses and other crimes committed under Gaddafi should certainly face justice but the Political Isolation Law looks like an attempt to tar thousands with the same brush and threatens to sweep away from any chance of public office people with key skills who could prove vital to achieving a successful transition in Libya.
Sadly, the Libyans appear to have ignored an important lesson from Iraq.
Ten years ago, after toppling Saddam Hussein, the victorious US-led coalition installed a Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to administer Iraq before handing power to an Iraqi Interim Government in 2004. The CPA quickly opened a “debaathification” campaign to cleanse the administration, police and security forces of people formerly affiliated to the Baath party, which underpinned Saddam Hussein’s repressive rule during his decades in power. Enacted into law, “debaathification” caused thousands of Iraqis lose their jobs and be banned from working in the public sector again, running in elections, or holding political office.
Most of them, including members of the security forces, faced no charges or accusations of wrongdoing during the previous regime. They were offered no opportunity to reconcile or reintegrate into society. Almost certainly, the vengeful and shortsighted debaathification policy helped fuel the political violence that still wracks Iraq. Many former police and soldiers joined the insurgency, taking their organizational and fighting skills with them. Officially, the Interim Government rescinded “debaathification” in June 2004 but in practice many Iraqis remained barred from public positions because of their connection to the former government.
In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, opportunities for work, job promotion and even educational advancement rested primarily on an individual’s assumed loyalty to the only permitted political party. Some joined because they supported its ideology but for many others, party membership was the means to secure a livelihood and avoid coming under the suspicion of the all-powerful secret police. In Iraq, as well as Syria a party membership card opened the door to prosperity and acted as a metaphorical shield against arbitrary violence by the security forces.
Today, research groups, policy-makers and news outlets compete to propose the best plans for the new Syria – the Syria that must emerge once the current quagmire of violence is ended. One thing many observers repeat is the need to preserve state institutions and avoid a political vacuum. What this should translate into is: learn the lessons of Libya and Iraq. In Syria, like Iraq, the Baath party permeated nearly every aspect of life -- political, academic and cultural. Unions and syndicates, including the large Farmers Union, all closely flirted with the Baath party and made sure members understood how important it was to be a Baathist.
In Iraq, supporters of debaathification saw it as a means to “cleanse” Iraq and Iraqi society of Baathist influence so that the state could move confidently into democracy. And in the period immediately after a dictatorship it may be justified in excluding a clearly but narrowly defined group of people for a limited time from the highest offices, subject to law.
In practice, however, debaathification was so wide-ranging as to be arbitrary and had a counter effect that continues to bedevil Iraq today. The political isolation law passed in Libya last week sadly replicates this avoidable political trap. In both cases, the political elite and the power holders ignored the need for reconciliation and the rule of law and the consequences of alienating people. Reconciliation based on justice should guide these transitions, rather than exclusion and revenge.
Tamara Alrifai is the Middle East advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
