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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arabs and followers of a
radical Shiite cleric held protests Friday against
federal provisions in Iraq's proposed constitution,
as negotiators sought to reach agreement on the
charter by next week's deadline.
Sunni Arab negotiators are holding out against
Shiite and Kurdish proposals for a federal structure
for Iraq, saying such proposals would divide the
country.
The Sunnis want a strong central government.
On Thursday, masked gunmen burst into the Sunni
grand mosque in the tense city of Ramadi as
religious, political, and tribal leaders met to
discuss possible Sunni participation in the
constitutional process. The gunmen asked
participants to end their meeting and then opened
fire on them, said Omar Seri, secretary of the
governor of Anbar province.
Three members of the Sunni Association of Muslim
Scholars and a bodyguard were injured, Seri said.
On Friday, more than 1,000 people rallied in Baqouba,
northeast of Baghdad, to protest the proposed
constitution. The demonstrators chanted slogans
against the proposed division of Iraq.
In Baghdad, anti-federal protests were scheduled in
Sadr City and the northern district of Kazimiyah, a
Shiite bastion.
The biggest Shiite political party — the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq —
supports creation of a federal region in the
Shiite-dominated areas of central and southern Iraq,
including major oil fields.
But two other Shiite parties, Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari's Dawa party and the movement of radical
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, do not support the plan.
U.S. officials are eager for the Iraqis to agree on
a draft constitution by the new deadline of Monday
night, after they failed to strike a deal by the
original Aug. 15 date.
The United States believes a constitution would be a
major step in the political transformation of Iraq
and would help in time lure disaffected Sunni Arabs
away from the Sunni-dominated insurgency. If
parliament signs off on the draft, it will go to the
voters for ratification in a referendum Oct. 15.
But passions are running so high that a charter
might sharpen sectarian and ethnic differences here,
complicating political compromise. Talks were
underway Friday in the heavily guarded Green Zone of
central Baghdad. If the factions do not agree by the
new deadline, parliament must dissolve.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb detonated near a U.S.
military convoy in the capital on Friday but caused
no U.S. casualties. One civilian was hurt, a U.S.
spokeswoman said.
The attack came a day after four U.S. soldiers in
Samarra, a religiously mixed city 97 kilometres
north of Baghdad, were killed.
In Thursday's constitutional deliberations, Sunni
Arab members of the drafting committee met with al-Jaafari
to present their objections to federalism and other
issues blocking an agreement.
Afterward, leaders of the factions — Shiites, Sunni
Arabs and Kurds — conferred late into the night at
the home of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
Haitham al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq — the
biggest Shiite party — said he expected a
breakthrough within 48 hours, adding that "the work
is being done in an inclusive way to overcome the
points of disagreements."
Negotiators were equally upbeat last week until they
finally admitted they were deadlocked.
Parliament voted unanimously on Monday to extend the
deadline by one week after negotiations deadlocked
over a number of issues. In addition to federalism,
stumbling blocks included Kurdish demands for the
right to secede, distribution of oil wealth and the
role of Islam.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said all
sides were determined to finish the constitution on
time "but the question is, would this draft satisfy
the Sunni Arabs' demands?"
But he also said that if the Shiites and Kurds
reached agreement, they would submit the
constitution to parliament on time, even if the
Sunnis disapprove. The Shiite and Kurd parties
control 221 seats in the 275-member parliament.
In the northern city of Hawija, insurgents
assassinated a city council member Friday, police
said. They said the councilman, Aswad Omar Nayef,
was on his way to Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of
Baghdad when he was ambushed by gunmen.
AP
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