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Shias `going after' Ba'ath officials

BAGHDAD may 25. The Shia Muslim cleric sat cross-legged on the floor. With chilling calm, he explained the criteria — how to decide which of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party officials are permitted to live, and which of them will die.

Only officials attempting to return to positions they held under Mr. Hussein should be killed — and only after a fair warning, said Sheik Ali al-Gharawi, one of several community leaders in a poverty-ridden Baghdad district known as al-Thawra, where an estimated 2 million Shias live. ``People come to me and say they want to kill such and such Ba'athist. I tell them to threaten them first,'' Sheik al-Gharawi said, his voice flat. ``If they don't heed the threat, then they must live with the consequences.''

Encouraged by the security vacuum in the wake of Mr. Hussein's overthrow last month, some Iraqis — particularly members of the long-oppressed Shia majority — are reported by residents of al-Thawra to be hunting down and killing former Ba'ath officials.

In al-Thawra, which was officially called Saddam City until last month but renamed al-Sadr City in honour of a top Shia cleric killed by the government in 1999, residents say between five and 10 Ba'athists have been killed so far. People still refer to the city as al-Thawra. ``Tribal and clan leaders are trying to stop them,'' said a resident. — AP

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