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Iraq Sunnis resist
Shiite-Kurd charter deal
BAGHDAD, Aug 27 (AFP) - 13h20 - Iraq's Sunnis
on Saturday were holding out against a draft
constitution deal thrashed out by the Shiites and
the Kurds, offering their own proposals for the new
charter just a day before it goes to parliament for
approval.
The Sunnis were sticking by their demand that the
word "federalism" be removed from the constitution
amid threats that the document would go to
parliament on Sunday heedless of whether they agreed
to it or not.
Officials said it remained to be seen whether
agreement could be reached ahead of the vote, amid
concern from the United States over the risks of
leaving the Sunnis out with their anxieties
unanswered.
Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hasani said that the
Sunni Arabs had given a counter-proposal to the
Shiites and Kurds after the two groups late Friday
forwarded what they called was their "final offer".
"We are looking into the counter-proposal given by
the Sunnis," Hasani, a Sunni, told AFP.
"Anything is possible till tomorrow" he said when
asked whether the draft forwarded by the Shiites and
the Kurds to the Sunnis was final.
Earlier Saturday Hasani said the proposal forwarded
to the Sunnis "is final and the parliament will vote
on it tomorrow (Sunday)... even if the Sunnis do not
accept it." Between them, Kurds and Shiites have an
overwhelming majority in parliament.
Hasani said the Shiites and the Kurds made some
concessions in the draft and proposed them to the
Sunnis last night, adding "the two groups have
proposed that federalism will be implemented by the
next assembly."
On Saturday he told reporters that "the constitution
gives the right (in principle) to establish
federalism, but leaves the mechanism to form federal
regions for the next elected parliament."
Iraq's next assembly will be elected by mid-December
after the nation votes on the draft constitution on
October 15.
Hasani said the Sunni Arabs's counter proposal
revolved around the phrasing used to describe the
implementation of federalism. "The Sunni
counter-proposal has not been agreed or accepted by
the Shiites and the Kurds," Hasani told AFP.
But the Sunnis remained adamant on their
anti-federalism stance.
"We requested a categorical omission of the term
federalism from the constitution, and leaving it for
the next elected parliament to look into the
matter," Sunni negotiator Sheikh Khalaf Olayan, told
AFP.
A Kurdish negotiator also said earlier Saturday the
concessions offered to the Sunnis on Friday were
final and they had to respond before the parliament
holds a special session on Sunday to approve the
draft.
"From the Shiites and the Kurds the draft is now
final and we await the response of the Sunnis,"
Mahmud Othman told AFP.
US President George W. Bush had personally
intervened this week to break a deadlock over the
negotiations by making a call to leading Shiite
leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim asking him to appease the
Sunnis.
Othman said the Shiites have offered to implement
federalism in "practicality" after the next national
assembly is formed.
Iraq's Shiites and Kurds together hold around 210
seats in the 275-member parliament, while the Sunni
Arabs have around two dozen after largely boycotting
January elections.
But the once powerful community is gearing up for
the upcoming mid-December elections which could see
a major shift in power in the assembly, one of the
reason they want the key issues of the draft
constitution to be taken up by the next assembly.
Meanwhile, some 1,000 detainees in the infamous Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq, which is operated by the US
Army, have been released over the past three days,
the US military said.
The detainees were released between August 24 and
August 27 and represented different Iraqi
communities. They had been brought to Abu Ghraib
from different detention centres throughout Iraq
ahead of their release.
In simmering unrest, one Iraqi army officer was
killed while five others wounded in two separate
insurgency attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk,
police said.
The US military said Saturday it had killed on
Friday a Saudi national who masterminded suicide
attacks in northern Iraq.
AFP
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