|
HALABJA, Kurdistan- Iraq - Mariwan Kamal
Salam stood behind his barber's chair in this
northern Iraqi town, trimming a customer's hair and
passing the day by talking about the upcoming
referendum to approve a proposed new constitution.
Halabja was the site of Saddam Hussein's chemical
attacks, which killed thousands in 1988, and it's
not uncommon to see residents who still bear scars.
The constitution, a simple stack of pages, isn't
enough to make Salam believe in a united Iraq.
"I want Kurdistan to be separated from the Iraqi
government, because the Shiites and the Sunnis are
going to repeat what Saddam did to us," Salam said,
as Kurdish music floated through the air. "They are
enticing us with false promises and lies."
Throughout the week, Iraqis of every stripe traded
accusations, rumors and hopes about their nation's
proposed new constitution. The proposed charter was
approved last Sunday by the national assembly, with
Shiite and Kurdish delegates approving and Sunni
Arab delegates objecting.
Interviews in bakeries in Shiite Najaf, tea shops in
the sooty, traffic-clogged streets of Sunni
neighborhoods in Baghdad, and Internet cafes in
Kurdish northern Iraq showed that Iraqis are split
largely along the same ethnic and religious lines as
their leaders are.
Shiites, some 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million
population, expressed joy for a bill of rights that
protects them from the torture and discrimination
they faced under Saddam's Baath Party and a
constitution that enshrines Islam as a basis for
law.
The Kurds favored a provision that sets a 2007
deadline for settling whether Kirkuk, an oil-rich
city now disputed by Kurds and Arabs, should be a
part of an autonomous Kurdish enclave.
And Sunnis, who make up 15 to 20 percent of Iraqis,
said they're convinced that the other two groups are
using the constitutional process to divvy up the
nation's oil, split into autonomous regions and
punish the Sunnis for some 30 years of oppression by
Saddam.
None of which should be surprising, said Jonathan
Morrow, an adviser to the committee that drafted the
document.
"In broad terms, it is a Kurdish-Shiite constitution
that was presented as a fait accompli to the Sunni
Arabs, who were not in the room when it was
written," said Morrow, who works with the United
States Institute of Peace. "It was written around
Kurdish and Shiite dinner tables of the
(U.S.-secured) Green Zone."
Already, many Sunni leaders are urging their
followers to reject the constitution when it's
presented to voters for approval in October. In the
northern Sunni stronghold of Tikrit, Saddam's
hometown, hundreds of people took to the streets
Monday with signs reading, "No to the constitution,
yes to Iraqi unity!"
In the Shiite south, residents of Najaf marched
through the streets praising the constitution. On
Tuesday, Iraqi national television showed a crowd of
hundreds parading through Nasiriyah, shouting, "Our
constitution is finished. ... Die, you Baathists."
The blessing given the constitution by a committee
of top Shiite clergy, the marja'iva, was important
to Anwar Sami, 45, a Najaf baker. "We are sure that
they are working for the benefits of the Iraqi
people, and they know about many things that we
don't know about," he said.
Alaa Haider, a 22-year-old university student in
Najaf, sounded a similar tone.
"I see in the constitution all the basics and
positives ... to build a strong unified Iraq,
because the people who wrote it ... had good
scientific and religious capabilities," Haider said.
"As long the constitution is legislated on the basis
of Islam, that means our rights are preserved."
At a leather factory in central Baghdad, two
co-workers debated women's rights and the role of
Islam, two of the most contentious points in the
constitution. The constitution gives Iraqis the
choice of settling family legal matters by religious
court or civil law.
Akran Mohammed, a Shiite Kurd married to an Arab,
said he supports Islam as the law of the land. Umm
Rani al-Tai, a Turkmen Sunni woman married to a
Shiite, said including Islamic law in the
constitution rolls back women's rights.
"Women will be hit, children will be taken from
divorcees and my husband will be able to marry
another woman without telling me," she complained.
"I don't agree with this constitution and will vote
no. Women are not animals to be beaten."
"Well, if she doesn't do anything wrong, she won't
be," Mohammed retorted. "And there's nothing wrong
with taking more than one wife."
"Then how can you say our rights will be preserved?"
al-Tai asked.
"It's all written in the Quran," Mohammed said. "We
cannot go against it."
Such debate is evident in nearly every corner of
Iraq. It even appeared during a news conference
Tuesday with Zalmay Khalilzad, the American
ambassador to Iraq who worked behind the scenes on
the new constitution, and top Sunni politician Adnan
al-Dulaimi.
Khalilzad, grinning broadly, said he was pleased
that Dulaimi was participating in the political
process. Dulaimi, who looked angry and was almost
shouting, declared the constitution illegal, called
for the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament and
charged that Shiite-led Interior Ministry death
squads were rounding up and killing Sunnis,
including at least 30 whose bodies were found south
of Baghdad this week.
Khalilzad remained stoic when asked whether such
sentiments worried him.
"Of course there is civil strife in Iraq," he said.
"That is not a secret."
Al Baldawy is a Knight Ridder Newspapers special
correspondent
www.kentucky.com
Top |
® 