US commander tells Iraqis Baath Party dissolved

The US commander of coalition forces in Iraq told Iraqis yesterday that President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was dissolved and asked them to surrender all of the group's possessions.

"The Baath Socialist Party is dissolved," General Tommy Franks said in a message read in Arabic on the US-run Information Radio broadcasting in Iraq.

"Anyone who possesses documents related to the Baath Party or the Iraqi government must maintain and protect them and hand these documents to the coalition," the message said.

The Baath Party has been effectively dissolved since the US-led forces stormed Baghdad and toppled Saddam on April 9.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani told CNN yesterday he thought President Saddam was still in Iraq.

"I think he's alive and I think he's inside Iraq," said Sheikh Hamad, who said he had gone to see Saddam before the war to try to convince him to step down to save his people.

Asked if he thought President Saddam would be captured by coalition forces, he said: "Yes, because I don't think he has sympathy among his people, I don't think they will hide him."

The US-led civilian administration overseeing the country's reconstruction and political rehabilitation asked last week that senior employees at various ministries sign a document denouncing the party that has ruled Iraq since 1968.

Franks also said the feared security organs of President Saddam's government had no more authority but stressed political parties which did not urge violence would be allowed to participate in the political life of post-Saddam Iraq.

There were an estimated three million members in Iraq's branch of the Baath. Many, including school students and civil workers, were forced to join the group.

The party, founded by Michel Aflak, was set up in Syria during the WW II. It is still ruling Syria and has branches in few Arab countries.

Saddam joined the party in the 1950s and took part in a failed assassination attempt of an anti-Baath prime minister.

The Baath came to power in Iraq in 1968 and President Saddam, who was the main force in the group, assumed the presidency in 1979.