|
Shia leaders demand more autonomy
12.8.2005
|
|
|
|
Hopes for an agreement
over a new constitution for Iraq looked under threat
yesterday when powerful leaders from the Shia
majority issued a forceful rallying cry for their
own autonomous state in the country’s oil-rich
south.
The impassioned call came just four days before the
deadline for agreement over the constitution
expires, throwing down the gauntlet to leaders of
the Sunni minority bitterly opposed to such a move.
Debate is still raging among members of the
constitutional committee over how to frame the
Kurdish demand for an autonomous state within a
federal Iraq to protect the self-rule enjoyed by the
northern provinces since 1991.
In recent days, however, Kurdish conditions have
grown more forceful, with Massoud Barzani, the
Kurdish leader, demanding that the autonomous region
be allowed to keep 65 per cent of revenue from the
disputed oilfields of Kirkuk, something Shia leaders
have ruled unacceptable.
Yesterday, however, before a baying crowd of
thousands, Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of the
Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution (SCIRI),
declared that if the Kurdish north was to get its
own federal state, then the Shia south should do so
too. “Regarding federalism, we think that it is
necessary to form one entire region in the south,”
Mr Hakim told the mass rally, which has gathered in
the holy city of Najaf to commemorate the second
anniversary of his brother’s killing in a suicide
bombing outside the Iman Ali mosque.
Hadi al-Amery, head of the Badr Brigade, SCIRI’s
militia, went further still, playing on Shia anger
at becoming the targets of violence from Sunni
insurgents and the failure of the Government to halt
the bloodshed. “We have to persist in forming one
region in the south or else we will regret it,” Mr
Amery said. “What have we got from the central
Government except death?” Sunni leaders swiftly
denounced the calls for cross-country federalism,
citing the threat of the break-up of Iraq or of an
oil rich north and south growing fat on the spoils
of the oil fields while the Sunni centre, the home
of the raging insurgency, grows poorer and more
deprived. They are seeking a strong central
government with tight control over oil resources
which account for 98 per cent of Iraq’s tax revenue,
the highest proportion anywhere in the world.
“We hoped this day would never come,” said Saleh al-Mutlak,
a leading mainstream Sunni Arab politician. “We
believe that the Arabs, whether Sunni or Shia, are
one. We totally reject any attempt to stir up
sectarian issues to divide Iraq.”
A spokesman for Ibrahim Jaafari, the Prime Minister,
said that his Shia Dawa party, a rival to SCIRI,
also rejected Mr Hakim’s demand. But there were
concerns that Mr Hakim’s call came with the blessing
of the country’s most powerful Shia cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Mr Hakim visited the
cleric earlier this week before the rally to discuss
the deadlock over the constitution.
With four days to go before the draft constitution
is to be delivered, much besides the federal issue
remains in dispute. Some Kurdish lawmakers have gone
as far as to demand a provision promising them a
vote on independence within eight years and have
given warning that they may simply declare
independence if the constitution does not meet their
demands.
Kurds are also fearful of Shia demands for Islamic
law and are struggling to insist that, at most,
Islamic law be taken as just one of several sources
for legislation. They also oppose Iraq being a
country with Arab or Islamic identity.
Washington, desperate for an agreement to be struck
so as not to derail the shaky political process, is
urging the different factions to overcome their
differences. But Donald Rumsfeld’s blunt exhortation
for lawmakers to “get on with it” has not met with
universal approval. Many fear that rushing such an
important document may rebound on them later.
American and Iraqi officials have hinted that one
compromise might be to agree only a skeletal
constitution by the deadline, leaving hard choices
on Islam and expanded territory for the Kurds until
a later date. But it is hard to see how the Kurds,
in particular, might be willing to continue without
firm guarantees on their future status.
www.timesonline.co.uk
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 