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Iraq Officials Hammer Out Constitution -
Delicately
8.6.2005
By Louise Roug and Tyler Marshall, LA Times Writers |
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BAGHDAD - In
buildings with windows crisscrossed by duct tape to
protect against flying glass, Iraq's would-be
founding fathers are hunkered down seeking to draft
a constitution. With nine weeks remaining before
their deadline, they are only now getting started on
the historic document meant to unify a fractious
country.
The 55 politicians, elected just four months ago,
face a tricky task. Go too slow and political
momentum may be lost. Go too fast and risk a flawed
constitution — or worse, civil war.
So far, Sunni Muslim Arabs have no meaningful
representation on the committee charged with
drafting the document, although Shiite Muslim and
Kurdish political and tribal leaders have promised a
solution to that sensitive issue as early as
Thursday. |
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Many observers warn that rushing the extraordinary
document could irrevocably damage relations among
Iraqis, raising the specter of full-blown sectarian
conflict. U.S. officials, looking for an exit
strategy, are urging lawmakers to hurry up and get
it done by the Aug. 15 due date.
"The stakes are very high," said South African
lawyer Nicholas "Fink" Haysom of the United Nations
Constitutional Support Unit, which is following
negotiations and providing technical assistance to
the Iraqis.
Committee members are working against a backdrop of
death threats, assassinations and suicide attacks.
They also are inherently suspicious of one another,
divided as they are by ethnicity, religion and
language. |
Now they have to map out how power will be divided
between Baghdad and the provinces. They have to draw
sensitive geographic boundaries. But foremost, they
have to address such fundamental issues as the role
of religion, human rights and the division of
resources in a constitution that will govern
relations not only among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds
but between neighbors and husbands and wives.
"With very hard questions, you don't make hard
decisions until you're right up on deadline," a
senior U.S. official in Baghdad said recently. "We
think it's possible to get it done."
The toughest issues appear to be the political
inclusion of Sunni Arabs, who as a group are
suspicious and marginalized; the role of religion in
Iraqi law; and control of oil-rich Al Tamim and
other provinces.
"The critical issues are political cans kicked down
the road," said Wayne White, a fellow at the Middle
East Institute in Washington. "The assumption is
that the further along the political process, the
easier it becomes. My feeling is the opposite."
Beyond drafting the constitution, the committee must
educate a traumatized populace about the
implications of it. After the document's completion,
it is scheduled to be put to a public vote in
mid-October.
Already, dreamy government-produced TV ads about a
peaceful future with a permanent constitution run on
local channels. In the mosques, clerics frequently
talk about the importance of the constitution. Some
religious and social organizations have begun
grass-roots campaigns to tell Iraqis that to attain
their independence, they must realize their common
identity in the constitution.
But town hall meetings and other large public
gatherings will be a challenge to pull off in some
areas, especially those dominated by Sunnis. Since
the Cabinet was formed April 28, insurgents have
violently targeted civilians, often hitting large
crowds.
While acknowledging the political and diplomatic
hurdles ahead, many members of the constitutional
panel insist they will defy the skeptics and finish
drafting the constitution before the deadline.
"Iraqis know it will be a way to provide justice for
everybody," said Humam Hamoodi, a Shiite with the
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Hamoodi became committee chairman a few weeks ago
and has two deputies, Fuad Masoom, a Kurd, and Adnan
Janabi, a Sunni.
Despite disparate starting points, Hamoodi said, all
groups are motivated by the same logic: A
constitution means independence.
Inside the convention center where the committee
works, the corridors of power have tea-stained,
threadbare carpets. Clad in expensive Italian suits
or regal dishdasha robes, the politicians are
surrounded by bodyguards as they hurry to and from
their hourlong debates in the fortressed Green Zone.
"It's a difficult task" to collectively create "the
agreement that broadly shapes their common destiny,"
said the U.N.'s Haysom.
One legal provision gives de facto veto power to any
of Iraq's three major population groups, Shiites,
Sunnis and Kurds. The proposed constitution fails if
two-thirds of the voters in three or more provinces
reject it in the planned referendum.
If the document is approved, new elections will be
held in December, possibly paving the way for the
departure of American troops. If it is rejected, the
National Assembly will be dissolved, triggering new
elections and rewinding the drafting process back to
the beginning.
"The Kurds start from their own fears. The Sunnis
would like to go to the past and emphasize our Arab
origin, and the Shiites talk about their misfortune
and the injustice that was done to them," Hamoodi
said.
Despite their differences, Hamoodi and others on the
panel say they can write a draft within the allotted
time. But some observers disagree.
"The constitution is permanent and for all the
people. For that reason, they should go slow," said
Phillip Walker, an expert in comparative law in the
Arab world. "Procrastination may not be such a bad
thing."
Since Iraq's national election in January, the
consistent message from the Shiite-led government
has been conciliation with Sunnis, despite the Sunni
anger that partly fuels the insurgency. But Sunni
Arabs hold only two of the 55 seats on the
committee.
The other parties "have to walk the talk and
actually include them. Otherwise, violence will
worsen," said David L. Phillips, a senior fellow
with the Council on Foreign Relations. "Neither in
numbers nor in prominence are they seated at the
table."
Although Phillips believes political momentum is
important, he's less convinced that the deadline is
realistic. "If it took 90 days to agree on a
Cabinet, it's hard to imagine the interim government
will be able to stick to the timetable."
Nathan Brown, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace who has written extensively
on the Iraqi constitutional process, noted that the
South African Constitution — considered a textbook
case of doing it right — required four to five years
in relative political calm.
U.S. officials publicly reject skepticism and
continue to insist that the Aug. 15 deadline can and
should be met, even though the Iraqis are entitled
to extend the deadline for six months if necessary.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underscored the
sense of urgency during a meeting last week in
Washington with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar
Zebari, U.S. officials said.
Apart from the deadline issue, the Bush
administration — with 140,000 troops in the country
— has tried to keep a low profile as the committee
begins its work. Although U.S. officials say they
are not getting involved in the specifics of the
drafting process, there is evidence they want to
ensure that the document adheres to such principles
as freedom of religion and the federal nature of the
Iraqi state.
The most controversial issues for the Iraqis to
consider are the nature of federalism and the role
of Islam in the constitution.
Though there is wide agreement on a federal Iraq,
exactly how power will be divided between the
capital and the regions is likely to arouse
considerable debate. This is especially true in
regard to the northern region of Kurdistan, which
has been largely autonomous since 1991.
Arabs resist the Kurdish ambition to establish the
oil-rich city of Kirkuk as the capital of the
region, which they imagine as largely independent.
Who will control the peshmerga, the Kurdish militia,
is a related question.
Although the future of Kirkuk will not be decided in
the constitution, the mechanism for its government
and revenue-sharing will probably be addressed.
"What we need to put in the document is not whether
Kirkuk is Kurdish, Arab or otherwise," Janabi said.
"What we have to say is who [decides], the
government or the regions."
Most Iraqis agree that Islam will be the country's
official religion, but its place in the rule of law
is contentious. Kurds are generally more secular
than Shiites, some of whom demand that Islam govern
family matters and that Islamic law be the only
source of legislation.
"This is a very sensitive issue, and we'd like to
advise the secular people not to press too hard on
this so as not to force the other side to be
militant," Hamoodi said. "If we can reach a middle
point, we can please everybody."
That middle point, he added, is in the existing
interim constitution approved last year as the
U.S.-led provisional authority returned sovereignty
to Iraq. That document — hammered out under U.S.
occupation and applauded in Washington — is widely
expected to serve as a basis for the new
constitution.
"It's tarnished goods, but it has its value, because
it's confronted the big issues and offers itself as
a starting point," said Brown of the Carnegie
Endowment.
Some speculate that the Kurds and the Shiites have
already struck back-room deals on the main points.
Hamoodi and Faraj Haydari, a senior official with
the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Baghdad, said the
panel had already agreed on core principles,
including federalism and human rights.
U.S. officials said the prolonged struggle to form a
government was, at least in part, a shadow debate on
the constitution, so some key appointments in the
transitional government have signaled the direction
the drafters may take on contentious issues.
"We understood what they were doing," a senior State
Department official said. "In the selection of
individuals, they were actually carving out
compromises at the same time on the extent of
federalism that will exist, the extent of Sunni
inclusion in the process and on other issues. That's
why we let them go on for as long as we did."
In this political process, "there's a place for
openness and transparency," Haysom said. "There's
also a place for compromises and trade-offs, and
those will obviously take place in back rooms."
Or dining rooms. Inside the Green Zone, political
cliques cluster around cafeteria tables for informal
negotiations during midday breaks. Makeshift walls
ensure privacy and keep journalists at bay. But
occasionally, local TV reporters sneak into the
political pen, fetching politicians who spin the
talk of the day for the waiting cameras.
"The constitution is not just for Shiites or Kurds
or Sunnis or Christians," Haydari said. "It belongs
to everybody."
Roug reported from Baghdad and Marshall from
Washington. Times staff writers Salar Jaff, Shamil
Aziz, Caesar Ahmed and Saif Rasheed in Baghdad
contributed to this report.
www.latimes.com
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