Sign of Reconciliation in Iraq?

From the Associated Press (via the Pawtucket Times)…

A day after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, the country's Shiite-dominated government declared a major concession to his Sunni Muslim backers that could see thousands of purged Baath Party members reinstated to their jobs.

The Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification has prepared a draft law with the amendments and will soon send it to parliament for ratification, the commission's executive director, Ali al-Lami told The Associated Press Monday….

The amendments are in harmony with a 24-point national reconciliation plan that was announced in June by the Shiite prime minister in which he called for reviewing the de-Baathification program, al-Lami said. [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's] reconciliation plan aims to end an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis since the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Before the amendments were drawn up, the organization listed names of 10,302 senior Baath Party members who were to be fired, but the new proposed law includes only 1,500 names, al-Lami said.

Those who will lose their jobs will get retirement pensions, he said, adding that 7,688 have been fired since the organization was established in January 2004.

Could this be a signal from the government of Iraq, already enjoying increased credibility amongst Shi'ites after pushing back against the United States last week, intended to demonstrate a readiness to try to move their country past sectarian strife? I'm still skeptical that these events (the stand-down of the Sadr city search, the timing of the Husein verdict, and the Baathist amnesty) are all part of a pre-thought master plan, but there may be an opportunity forming here.