| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Tuttles Almanac" |
| Date: |
21 Jul 2005 07:35:30 AM |
| Object: |
The Republic of Iraq |
Don't write Iraq constitution without us - Sunnis
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GRA127803.htm
BAGHDAD, July 21 (Reuters) - Sunni Arabs boycotting the
committee drafting Iraq's new constitution warned other members
on Thursday not to push the document through without their support.
Sunni Arabs suspended participation in the constitution-drafting
committee on Wednesday after a Sunni Arab committee member
and two fellow-members of the Sunni Arab umbrella group Iraqi
National Dialogue were shot dead.
The committee is the main vehicle the government and its U.S.
backers had hoped would lure the restive Sunni minority into the
political process and help defuse Iraq's insurgency.
Washington and Iraq's Shi'ite leaders have called on the Sunnis to
remain engaged in the constitution-writing process despite the
assassination.
The committee's Shi'ite chairman Humam Hamoudi said on
Wednesday he believed the Sunnis' demands were for improved
security, which could be swiftly met, and predicted they would sign
on to a new constitution that would be ready in weeks.
But Iraqi National Dialogue spokesman Salih Mutlaq said
Hamoudi's comments implied he was rushing through a draft
constitution without waiting for Sunnis to return to the table.
"He should withdraw his remarks," Mutlaq said. "We will not
resume work with the committee until our demands are met."
He said the group sought an "international investigation" into the
assassination of committee member Mujbil al-Sheikh Isa and two
others on Tuesday.
The group also demands that the committee leadership reaffirm its
commitment not to push through a draft without Sunni participation,
he said.
Last month 15 Sunni members joined the committee, which
previously consisted mostly of Shi'ites and Kurds elected in an
election in January when most Sunnis stayed away from the polls
either because of a boycott or fear of reprisals for voting.
Under the deal in which the Sunnis agreed to join, the committee is
required to adopt the draft constitution by consensus rather than a
majority vote.
Diplomats who have followed the process say that rule has helped
keep contentious clauses out of the draft document. But questions
over the boundaries and degree of autonomy for regions like the
mainly Kurdish north have split committee members largely on
ethnic and sectarian grounds.
Hamoudi said the committee's draft would be finished by Aug. 1
and turned over to parliament in time for it to be published
nationwide by an Aug 15. deadline.
________________________________________________________________
Republicans and Shiites would never allow a
consensus-based Democracy to form in Iraq.
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