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BAGHDAD, Iraq 27.Aug. (AP) -- Iraq's head of
parliament announced Saturday that Shiites and Kurds
had agreed to Sunni Arab proposals for the new
constitution and were awaiting a response. But Sunni
negotiators said the changes fall short of their
demands and urged voters to reject the draft in the
Oct. 15 referendum.
Speaker Hajim al-Hassani, himself a Sunni, said the
amended text, dealing with issues of federalism and
former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party,
would be submitted Sunday to parliament. The
legislature, overwhelmingly Shiite and Kurdish, may
vote on it or simply refer it to the voters.
Al-Hassani's comments followed similar statements
late Friday by Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers but were
significant because he has final say in when the
assembly will act.
His remarks indicated that negotiations on the new
constitution had run their course. Barring a sudden
change of mind by the Sunnis, the charter is likely
to go to the voters over Sunni objections, setting
the stage for a bitter political battle ahead of the
referendum by supporters and opponents of the draft.
If the constitution clears parliament without Sunni
blessing, it would be a blow to the Bush
administration, which insisted all along that Sunni
participation was critical to produce a document
which was accepted by all communities.
Sunni Arabs are at the forefront of the insurgency
and the Americans hoped the constitution would lure
them away from the rebellion. But Sunni negotiator
Saleh al-Mutlaq said the final draft fails to meet
Sunni aspirations.
"We tell our people that we have fulfilled the duty
that you asked us to do," al-Mutlaq told reporters
Saturday. "We have sincerely done the job and now
the matters are up to you. We want those who did not
wake up until now to wake up. We want you to express
your point of view but without violence" in the Oct.
15 referendum.
Written versions of the Shiite-Kurdish concessions
were not released.
But Al-Hassani said the concessions, which were
presented to the Sunnis on Friday, involved delaying
details how to implement federalism - or the
establishment of self-ruled regions - until a new
parliament is elected in December - presumably with
more Sunni members than the current one.
On the issue of purging former Baath Party members,
many of them Sunnis, al-Hassani said "not every
person who joined the Baath Party is a criminal.
There are hundreds of thousands of people who joined
the Baath Party for a reason or another and they
come from all regions."
The vast gulf among Iraq's communities made the task
of drawing up a document acceptable to all
difficult. In a bid for consensus, President Bush
telephoned a top Shiite leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim,
and asked him to make compromises with the Sunnis.
"A parliamentary agreement has been reached between
the Kurdish coalition and the (Shiite) alliance on
accepting the suggestions of the forces that did not
take part in the elections (Sunnis) and it will be
announced in parliament tomorrow," al-Hassani said.
Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to mollify Sunni
Arabs, the U.S. military on Saturday announced the
release of nearly 1,000 security detainees from Abu
Ghraib prison over the past several days.
The move, which had been in the works for some time,
was the largest prisoner release to date and
followed appeals by Sunni negotiators to the
government to set free thousands of prisoners - most
of them Sunnis - who have been languishing in the
jail for months without being charged.
"I want to confirm that the releasing process is
still going on and this number of 1,000 ... may be
increased," national security adviser Lt. General
Wafiq al Samaraei said. "The president ... and other
governmental officials are interested in bringing
the Sunni Arabs to the political process, and they
will participate in spite of violence and
terrorism."
With nearly 80 percent of the population, the
Shiites and their Kurdish allies are gambling that
the draft would win approval in the referendum. But
if two-thirds of voters in any three of the 18
provinces reject the constitution, it will be
defeated. Sunnis form a majority in at least four
provinces, and clerics already have urged them to
vote "no" if the draft doesn't serve Sunni
interests.
The political split between the two blocs pointed to
fundamental differences on visions for the new Iraq.
These included the country's identity, whether Iraq
would continue as a centralized state or a
federation based on religion and ethnicity and
whether former Baath members, most of them Sunnis,
had a future in public life.
Sunnis fear that federalism, demanded by the Shiites
and Kurds, would not only establish a giant Shiite
state in the south but also encourage future bids by
the Kurds to expand their region into northern
oil-producing areas. That would leave the Sunnis cut
off from Iraq's oil wealth in the north and south.
Sunnis had insisted that the contentious issues of
federalism and the fate of Baath party members be
deferred to the next parliament, in which they hope
to have more members. Sunni Arabs form an estimated
20 percent of the 27 million population but won only
17 of the 275 parliament seats because so many
Sunnis boycotted the Jan. 30 election.
The Sunnis also resent attempts to ban former Baath
Party members from government posts or political
life, feeling that would deprive them of livelihood
in the new Iraq and prevent the country from using
the talents of thousands of professors, senior
executives and others who joined the organization to
advance their careers.
However, Shiites suffered under Saddam, and hatred
for his Baath party runs deep. A move by former
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, to
quietly reinstate some former Baath members in the
security services cost him considerable Shiite
support, and his party fared poorly in the election.
AP
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