MORE PROGRESS - JUSTICE RETURNING

"Before, judges had no freedom to make decisions. Now I have freedom," says Salah Khadar al-Jubouri, chief judge of the Salahaddin Provincial Court. "Gradually, like a recovering patient, the laws are being applied with justice," he says in his spacious Tikrit chamber.

In fits and starts, the gears are starting to churn again in Iraq's antiquated court system, badly looted and broken in the aftermath of the war. Already, about 150 of the nation's 400 courts have reopened for business. Reestablishing the justice system and rule of law is vital to efforts to build a democracy in Iraq, where general elections could take place as early as mid-2004...

For the first time, judges such as Mr. Jubouri in Tikrit say they are free to hand down decisions without interference from the regime. Before the war, Hussein and his relatives and associates were "untouchable," says Jubouri, recalling a case he handled in the central city of Balad where a murderer was ordered released by the regime. Today, he says, no one is above the law.

"Before, many criminals escaped. Now all people have equality under the law and the judge tries his case to the end," Jubouri says.