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The
head of the committee drafting Iraq's new
constitution said yesterday three days are not
enough to win over the Sunni Arabs and the document
they rejected may ultimately have to be approved by
parliament as is and submitted to the people in a
referendum.
Iraqi leaders completed a draft Monday night and
submitted it to parliament but with only minutes to
go before a midnight deadline deferred a vote to
allow three days to convince Sunni Arab negotiators
to accept it.
At a news conference yesterday, Humam Hammoudi,
chairman of the drafting committee, acknowledged
that three days would probably be too short to win
over Sunnis, who objected to wording on federalism,
Saddam Hussein's Baath party, the description of
Iraq as an Islamic - but not Arab - country and
other parts of the document.
Asked how to break the impasse, Hammoud said "the
Iraqi people will rule" and suggested that the
elected parliament could debate the issues and take
a decision. Shiites and Kurds, who accepted the
agreement, dominate the assembly.
Approving the draft and submitting it to the people
in an October 15 referendum risks a backlash among
Sunni Arabs, who are at the forefront of the
insurgency. Luring them away from violence and into
the political process was a major U.S. goal for the
constitution.
But Hammoud noted that unlike the Shiite and Kurd
negotiators, the Sunni Arabs were not elected
parliament members but were appointed to the
committee. Sunni Arabs won only 17 of the 275
parliament seats because so many Sunnis boycotted
the January 30 election.
"Those who are representing the brother Sunni Arabs
are not elected," Hammoud said. "Therefore, who can
say that they really represent the people on the
street ... therefor the Sunnis have to express their
opinion."
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite,
appeared to make an overture to the minority. "Some
of the political groups have some reservations and
we will study them and try to reach a solution in
the next three days," he said at a news conference
in Baghdad yesterday.
"Our Sunni Arab brothers faced some circumstances in
the past that prevented them from having real
representation (in parliament) in what is equal to
their demography and we hope that in the future they
will be better represented."
AP
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