|
BAGHDAD (Reuters) Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:37 PM
- Political leaders of Iraq's Sunni minority
rejected a compromise offer on giving them more say
in the drafting of a constitution on Friday.
Scattered violence, including the discovery of 16
victims of execution-style killings and a gun attack
on a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, highlighted the
dangers if growing friction among Iraq's religious
and ethnic communities.
The identities of the dead found at two spots near
the Syrian border were unclear. But there were fears
for the lives of 20 or more soldiers from the mainly
Shi'ite south who were kidnapped nearby, apparently
by Sunni al Qaeda fighters.
It was not clear how the Shi'ite-dominated National
Assembly and government would react to the rejection
by the main Sunni political group of an offer of
more seats on the parliamentary committee charged
with drafting a constitution by August 15.
Further wrangling could jeopardise that deadline.
A spokesman for the Gathering of the Sunni People
said they would hold out for 25 seats against the 15
on offer. He said they would boycott negotiations if
arbitration by a three-person panel consisting of a
Sunni, a parliamentary representative and a United
Nations official failed to settle the matter.
"We will not agree and will not concede any seat,"
spokesman Adnan al-Dulaimi said. "If they refuse our
demand we will resort to arbitration. If they insist
then we will suspend our participation."
Calls for a boycott and insurgent violence in Sunni
areas meant few of the formerly dominant 20-percent
minority took part in the January 30 election. Only
17 Sunnis sit in parliament and only two are now on
the 55-seat constitutional committee.
SHI'ITE OFFER
Shi'ite leaders, whose majority community voted them
to power after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein's
Sunni-dominated regime, have offered to expand the
body to 69 seats, bringing in non-legislators to
give Sunnis 15 places, the same as the Kurds.
The offer was made by the committee chairman Humam
Hammoudi and endorsed by Prime Minister Ibrahim
Jaafari.
The case for 25 seats has, Dulaimi noted, been
bolstered by support from Iraq's Kurdish president,
Jalal Talabani -- even though the roughly similar
Kurdish minority has only 15 seats.
It is not clear that the precise number of seats on
the committee matters a great deal as the aim is to
reach a consensus rather than push through a
constitution by the kind of narrow majority the
Shi'ites can normally muster on their own.
Washington, whose soldiers still broadly control the
country, also says it wants Sunnis to feel included.
Without them, the constitution would lack legitimacy
and might fail at a referendum due by October if
Sunni regions vote against it.
Engaging Sunnis in politics is seen as a way to curb
violence. Jaafari, whose government's formation was
met with a wave of bombings in April and May, said
when asked on Thursday about possible negotiations
with Sunni insurgents that those who renounced
violence were welcome to join the political process.
That view was echoed on Friday by a U.S. embassy
spokesman, commenting on remarks by U.S. officials
that contacts with Sunni leaders have been an
opportunity to pass on appeals to insurgent groups
to abandon the armed struggle for politics.
"We've always believed that an inclusive political
process is critical for Iraq's future prosperity and
we talk to Iraqis from many different groups about
participating in the political process. We encourage
them to engage their government," he said.
MASSACRE SITES
A lull in major violence in the past few days --
possibly partly due to U.S. and Iraqi military
activity around Baghdad -- belies continued smaller
attacks, some with a sectarian tinge.
Police in the western town of Ramadi said it was too
dangerous for them to go to the sites near the
Syrian border where journalists filmed corpses in
civilian clothes, many of them blindfolded and with
their hands tied behind their backs.
Two of the men had been beheaded.
The desert region is a stronghold of the Sunni
insurgency but it was not clear if the victims were
among 22 soldiers from the Shi'ite south who police
said were kidnapped on Tuesday after heading out on
home leave from their base at Qaim.
The Al Qaeda Organisation in Iraq, a guerrilla group
with a history of killing hostages and led by Osama
bin Laden ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an
Internet posting it was holding 36 soldiers and
demanded all women prisoners in Iraq be freed.
Two worshippers were wounded after Friday prayers at
a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad's troubled Dora district
when gunmen opened fire on the building: "In jihad
(holy war), you do not attack the house of God,"
local cleric Mohammed al-Assadi said.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, where Arabs, Kurds
and Turkmen are vying for control of vast oil
resources, the head of the anti-terrorist police --
a Kurd -- was shot dead in his car.
Near the northern oil refining town of Baiji, a
suicide car bomber wounded four soldiers in a U.S.
military convoy on Thursday, the military said.
Reuters
Top |
® 