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Discord stalls Iraq constitution as
deadline looms
15.8.2005
By Luke Baker
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BAGHDAD, Aug 15
(Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers were struggling to avert
a political crisis on Monday as they raced to meet a
midnight deadline for submitting the draft of a new
constitution to parliament under intense U.S.
pressure.
Political leaders and the 71-member
constitution-drafting committee began another round
of talks on the charter, still without agreement on
at least two issues -- federal autonomy and the role
of Islam in the state.
Hussain al-Shahristani, the deputy speaker of
parliament, said that at some point later on Monday
negotiations would have to stop and a decision be
taken on whether to present the draft to parliament
or whether to consider more dramatic options.
A special evening session of parliament has been
scheduled for 6 p.m. (1400 GMT) to consider the
document, although a parliamentary aide said the
meeting could be put back.
Last year's interim, U.S.-sponsored charter, known
as the Transitional Administrative Law or TAL, laid
down Aug. 15 as the deadline for completing a draft
of the new constitution, which must be voted on in
an October referendum.
According to the TAL, if no draft of the
constitution is completed by Aug. 15, the National
Assembly should be dissolved and elections for a new
assembly held before Dec. 15, 2005. But such a
dramatic turn of events appears unlikely.
If a constitution is agreed, and approved in the
October referendum, then voting will also be held by
mid-December. |
A Makhmur tribal youth holds up a sign in favour of
being part of a Kurdish autonomous region during a
demonstration in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil
August 15, 2005. Demonstrators said they would
rather be part of a Kurdish federal state than fall
under control of the central government. Iraqi
lawmakers struggled to avert a political crisis on
Monday and meet a midnight deadline for presenting
the draft of a new constitution to parliament
Photo: Reuters |
"The first option is
that everyone agrees on a draft of the constitution
and it is presented to the National Assembly for
approval on time," Shahristani told Reuters.
Another possibility, he said, was for the National
Assembly to vote and, if three quarters of the house
agree, to amend the TAL to allow more time to draft
the new constitution.
"That is a very likely possibility," he said, adding
that if that route were taken an extension of
between two weeks and one month would likely be
sought.
Yonadem Kanna, a Christian member of the drafting
team, also said an extension was looking more
likely.
"If they can't all agree, they will ask for an
extension," he said. "My opinion is it will be two
or three weeks maximum, without the need for
changing the referendum or election dates."
Such a move could be embarrassing for Washington,
which has piled pressure on Iraqi leaders to meet
the deadline. The U.S. ambassador is playing a
prominent role in the talks.
SUNNIS SIDELINED?
Members of the drafting committee said another
possibility was that Shi'ites and Kurds, who between
them have an overwhelming majority in the Assembly
and who also broadly agree on the wording of the
constitution, could decide to present a draft to
parliament on their own, ignoring Sunni objections.
Salah al-Mutlaq, a member of the drafting team from
the Sunni Arab minority, said that would be
unacceptable.
"It wouldn't be legal, but then again not everything
that happens here is legal. I think they may do it,
but if they do, we will object to it in the
strongest terms," he told Reuters.
One concern over such an option, besides ignoring
the input of Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam
Hussein and before, is that it could further stoke
the Sunni insurgency. It had been hoped that an
inclusive constitution-writing process would sap the
two-year-old revolt.
The Sunni community finds itself in a difficult
situation.
Since it widely boycotted elections held in January,
it ended up with just a fraction of the seats in the
National Assembly. That in turn meant almost no
representatives on the constitution-writing team,
until an extra 15 seats were added.
Some Shi'ites say Sunni members of the drafting
committee are now being obstructive for the sake of
it, and argue that the Shi'ites and Kurds should
push ahead without them.
Sunni members say they were brought in to ensure the
process was inclusive and to ignore them now would
be a ruinous snub.
AVOIDING IMPASSE
One way around the looming impasse may be a fudge.
Since there appears to be broad agreement on most of
the text it is possible that an incomplete draft
could be presented to parliament and accepted in the
interim.
"It's possible that we could accept a draft that
covers basically 99 percent of the clauses and allow
a bit more time to complete negotiations over the
other issues," said Shahristani.
A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani, who has
led the last-ditch negotiations, also said such a
move was possible.
"The TAL says the National Assembly is to write a
draft constitution by Aug. 15. It doesn't say if
Aug. 15 has to be a final draft," said Kameran
Qaradaghi. "There could be a few days to discuss
some of these things further.
"It's a possibility. It remains to be legally
justified."
Kurds are anxious that any wording on federalism is
strong enough to guarantee their existing de facto
autonomy, while Sunnis are keen to resist claims for
a Shi'ite region that could challenge Baghdad's
control of southern oil.
It is uncertain that even a few more days of
negotiation would be enough to resolve such deep
differences of opinion.
(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Andrew
Hammond and Alastair Macdonald)
Reuters
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