BAGHDAD, March 27 (UPI) -- Iraqi leaders plan to welcome members of deposed leader Saddam Hussein's Baathist party back into government jobs in a bid to stem sectarian violence.
One of the priorities after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion was to purge the predominantly Sunni Muslim Baathist regime and subsequent elections have resulted in a Shiite majority.
Now, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani say their plan is to reverse the so-called political de-Baathification and snuff out the sectarian fighting, a New York Times correspondent reported Tuesday.
Under the plan, pensions would be restored for Baathists and thousands more people would be allowed to resume working for the government but only after signing statements agreeing not to make political statements about the current government.
The plan also sets absolute time limits for complaints about former Baathists. Anyone with a legal dispute would have three months to register it and courts would have six months to resolve it.
