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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi negotiators finished the
new constitution Sunday and referred it to the
voters but without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs, a
major setback for the U.S. strategy to lure Sunnis
away from the insurgency and hasten the day U.S.
troops can go home.
The absence of Sunni Arab endorsement, after more
than two months of intensive negotiations, raised
fears of more violence and set the stage for a
bitter political fight ahead of an Oct. 15
nationwide referendum on the document.
A political battle along religious and ethnic lines
threatened to sharpen communal divisions at a time
when relations among the Shiites, Sunni Arabs and
Kurds appear to be worsening.
Sunni negotiators delivered their rejection in a
joint statement shortly after the draft was
submitted to parliament. They branded the final
version as "illegitimate" and asked the Arab League,
the United Nations and "international organizations"
to intervene against the document.
Intervention is unlikely, however, and no further
amendments to the draft are possible under the law,
said a legal expert on the drafting committee,
Hussein Addab.
"I think if this constitution passes as it is, it
will worsen everything in the country," said Saleh
al-Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiator.
President Bush expressed disappointment that the
Sunnis did not sign on but pinned his hopes on the
referendum.
"Some Sunnis have expressed reservations about
various provisions in the constitution and that's
their right as free individuals in a free society,"
Bush said in Crawford, Texas.
He said the referendum was a chance for Iraqis to
"set the foundation for a permanent Iraqi
government."
But the depth of disillusionment over the charter in
the Sunni establishment extended beyond the 15
negotiators, who were appointed to the
constitutional committee in June under U.S.
pressure.
The country's Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer,
did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking
completion of the document. When President Jalal
Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior
government officials including Deputy Prime Minister
Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.
"The constitution is left to our people to approve
or reject it," said Talabani, a Kurd. "I hope that
our people will accept it despite some flaws."
A top Sunni who did attend the ceremony, parliament
speaker Hajim al-Hassani, said he thought the final
document contained "too much religion" and too
little protection of women's rights.
Despite last-minute concessions from the majority
Shiites and Kurds, the Sunnis said the document
threatened the unity of Iraq and its place in the
Arab world.
Ibrahim al-Shammari, spokesman of a leading
insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, said on
Al-Jazeera television that the constitution "drafted
under the supervision of the occupiers" would divide
Iraq and benefit Israel.
Major deal-breaker issues included federalism,
Iraq's identity in the Arab world and references to
Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath Party.
Sunnis fear federalism would lead to the breakup of
the country into a Kurdish north and Shiite south,
deprive Sunnis of Iraq's vast oil wealth
concentrated at the opposite ends of the country,
and open the door to Iranian influence in the Shiite
south.
Many key Shiite leaders took refuge in
Shiite-dominated Iran during Saddam's rule. The
constitution identifies Iraq as an Islamic — but not
an Arab — country, a concession to the Kurds and
other non-Arab minorities.
Sunnis also wanted no reference to Saddam's party,
fearing that would lead to widespread purges of
Sunnis from government jobs and public life.
The parliament speaker, who was not part of the
Sunni negotiating team, said the Shiites and Kurds
should have been more accommodating to the minority.
The Shiite-Kurdish bloc won 221 of the 275 National
Assembly seats because many Sunnis boycotted the
Jan. 30 election.
"I think to them, they won the election . . . so it
is an opportunity to them to get whatever they
want," al-Hassani told reporters. "If I was in their
camp, I would have been more generous."
Although Sunnis account for only 20 percent of
Iraq's estimated 27 million people, they still can
derail the constitution in the referendum due to a
concession made to the Kurds in the 2004 interim
constitution. If two-thirds of voters in any three
provinces reject the charter, the constitution will
be defeated. Sunnis have the majority in at least
four provinces.
Defeat of the constitution would force new elections
for a parliament that would begin the drafting
process from scratch. If the constitution is
approved, elections for a fully constitutional
parliament will be in December.
Communal tensions have risen since the
Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28.
Both Shiites and Sunnis accuse the other of
assassinating members of the rival sect. Shiites and
Kurds dominate the government security services,
while most insurgents are believed to be Sunnis.
For the United States, one of the few silver linings
in the bitter constitutional debate is that it
convinced many Sunnis that they made a profound
mistake by boycotting the Jan. 30 election and
should take part in the political process.
So few Sunnis were elected that their constitution
negotiators had to be appointed, reducing their
influence on the committee. Al-Mutlaq called for an
extension of Thursday's registration deadline so
more Sunnis could participate.
Sunni clerics, who were at the forefront of the
boycott campaign, are now urging their followers to
register for the referendum and the December
national election — although against the
constitution.
The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has
considerable influence, has broken with other
Shiites and spoken out against the constitution. Al-Sadr
has been making overtures to hard-line Sunni clerics
in a common front against the draft and the U.S.
presence here.
The document included some relatively minor
amendments that the Shiites offered after Bush urged
compromise.
They included striking the word "party" from the
phrase "Saddam's Baath Party," which could enable a
future Baath Party to emerge, and letting a future
parliament work out rules for implementing
federalism.
Sheik Humam Hammoudi, a Shiite and chairman of the
drafting committee, said 5 million copies of the
constitution will be circulated nationwide in food
allotments each Iraqi family receives monthly from
the government. Unlike the January elections, Iraqis
will not be allowed to vote outside the country
because of the difficulty in applying the
three-province veto.
AP
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