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Top Shiite politician joins call for
Autonomous south Iraq
12.8.2005
By EDWARD WONG
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BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Aug. 11 - One of Iraq's most powerful Shiite
politicians on Thursday strongly backed demands for
the formation of a semi-independent region in the
oil-rich south, adding fresh turmoil to the drafting
of a new constitution as the deadline for its
completion draws near.
The politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a religious
Shiite with close ties to Iran, told a large
gathering in the holy city of Najaf that it was
"necessary" for Shiite Arabs to secure broad
governing powers for the south, which is dominated
by the Shiites and was long oppressed under the rule
of Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Hakim has been holding direct talks with other
Iraqi leaders over the new constitution, and his
remarks signaled a sharpening of the position held
by some Shiites just four days before the document
is scheduled to be finished.
The issue of autonomous regions has become the
biggest sticking point in the negotiations. Kurdish
leaders, intent on preserving the broad powers of
Iraqi Kurdistan in the north, have been the biggest
proponents of regional autonomy, while the formerly
governing Sunni Arabs, fearing an unfair division of
oil resources, have adamantly rejected the idea.
Some Sunni Arab leaders on Thursday immediately
denounced Mr. Hakim's call for a semi-independent
southern region and said it would now be hard to
finish the constitution on time.
"I don't think we will reach an agreement in four
days," said Fakhri al-Qaisi, a Sunni Arab member of
the 71-member constitutional committee. "There's no
agreement between any of the groups. All the doors
have closed. The Kurds have insisted on their
demands. The Shia insist on their demands."
Until now, Shiite religious leaders in Baghdad had
spoken broadly of moderate regional powers. Mr.
Hakim's comments lent support to stronger demands
for autonomy by mostly secular Shiite politicians in
the south. "To keep the political balance of the
country, Iraq should be ruled under a federal system
next to the central government," Mr. Hakim told
thousands of worshipers, many of whom waved green
flags, a symbol of Shiite Islam. "We think it is
necessary to form one entire region in the south."
Mr. Hakim's remarks followed a meeting he had
Wednesday in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. The
ayatollah told Shiite politicians last week that he
supported the concept of autonomy, though he did not
make specific recommendations.
Throughout the drafting of the constitution, the
country's major ethnic and sectarian groups have
bargained hard on a variety of matters, but no
single issue has inspired more frustration or ill
will than the definition of regional powers. Mr.
Hakim's remarks highlighted the division just days
before the Aug. 15 deadline, when the National
Assembly is supposed to approve a draft of the
constitution, paving the way for a popular
referendum on the document in October and national
elections in December.
The Bush administration has put enormous pressure on
the Iraqis to stick to the timetable, in hopes that
the process will help drain the Sunni Arab
insurgency of some of its wrath and bolster flagging
American opinion about the war in Iraq.
Mr. Qaisi, the Sunni leader, said Sunni Arabs could
not approve of the creation of autonomous regions,
as in a confederation, because that would lead to a
breakup of Iraq. "We want the unity of Iraq," he
said, "and we want to preserve this unity."
The guerrilla war continued to roil the country on
Wednesday, as Iraqi officials reported that at least
seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers and an
intelligence officer, had been killed. The American
military said a marine died in a roadside bomb
explosion in Ramadi on Wednesday, and an unmanned
aerial drone crashed near the northern city of Mosul
on Wednesday night.
An Iraqi official involved in the trial of Mr.
Hussein and his aides said Thursday that the
tribunal was getting closer to setting a firm date.
The tribunal is expected to give Mr. Hussein's
lawyers a definite date at the end of this month,
and the official said the trial would almost
certainly take place in mid-October at the earliest.
Once a date is set, Mr. Hussein's lawyers will be
given at least 45 days to prepare, said the
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because tribunal officials are supposed to limit
their public statements.
The movement for southern autonomy that Mr. Hakim
supports has been gathering momentum over the
summer. Politicians in the south, particularly in
the city of Basra, have been lobbying drafters of
the constitution to enshrine the right of provinces
in Iraq to break off into autonomous regions,
similar to Iraqi Kurdistan. The south could profit
enormously from such an arrangement - it has 80 to
90 percent of Iraq's vast oil reserves and the only
ports in the country. Many southerners say they are
frustrated that the central government in Baghdad
does not allocate more oil revenue to their
impoverished region.
Many of the Shiite politicians who initially backed
the idea of southern autonomy are secular. The most
powerful supporter has been Ahmad Chalabi, a vice
prime minister and a former Pentagon favorite. Mr.
Hakim is the first leading religious Shiite figure
to lend his backing in such a public way.
Mr. Hakim's party, the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, founded in the 1980's in
Iran, wields considerable power in Basra and the
rest of the south. It heads a coalition that has a
majority of the seats on the Basra governing
council, and its armed wing, the Badr Organization,
controls many of the senior positions in the Basra
security forces. Religious Shiite mores have taken
hold in Basra, and Mr. Hakim's portrait is plastered
along streets and police checkpoints throughout the
city.
Mr. Hakim's comments on Thursday came at a huge
public gathering in Najaf marking the death of his
older brother, Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, a much-loved
cleric killed by a car bomb in August 2003.
Some Shiites have supported creating a region out of
Al Basra Province and neighboring provinces, while
others have pushed for a much larger region that
would also encompass the holy cities of Najaf and
Karbala.
But there are also Shiites who vehemently oppose any
move toward autonomy. Moktada al-Sadr, the young
rebel cleric who led two uprisings against the
Americans last year, and Ayatollah Muhammad Yacoubi,
another radical cleric with ties to Mr. Sadr, have
both denounced the movement, saying it goes against
the concept of central Islamic rule.
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