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BAGHDAD, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Iraqi politicians
have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft
constitution and it remains unclear when a final
text may be printed, less than five weeks before a
referendum, Iraqi and U.N. officials said on Sunday.
"We don't know when they'll finish,'' Nicholas
Haysom, the United Nations official charged with the
printing, told Reuters, confirming that negotiations
were continuing.
"We'd like it as soon as possible.''
Last week, after a series of missed deadlines,
Haysom said he expected the National Assembly
formally to endorse a final text on Sunday, after
making an amendment in talks that followed
parliament's previous adoption of the draft on
August 28.
Any later, he had said, and it would be a
"challenge'' to get five million copies out to the
electorate of about 14 million in time for them to
digest it by the referendum on October 15.
But Saad Qandeel, a legislator from the Shi'ite
majority, said parliament had not discussed the
draft on Sunday and negotiation on three points
could continue for several days.
"If we fail to reach an agreement by the end of the
week then they will print the present version of the
draft unchanged,'' said Qandeel, a member of the
parliamentary committee drafting the constitution.
"We can't delay it more because we need time to
print it.''
The Shi'ite-led government and its U.S. sponsors
fear rejection by Iraq's once dominant Sunni Arab
minority could sink the constitution; it will be
vetoed if two thirds of voters in three provinces
vote 'No'.
"We want the Iraqi people to say 'Yes' to this
constitution, and there are some parties who have a
say in the result,'' said Qandeel. "They have
objections and we must listen to them.''
THREE GROUPS, THREE CLAIMS
An amendment to satisfy Sunni demands about the
wording of a passage on the Arab identity of Iraq,
apparently accepted by non-Arab Kurds last week, was
still under discussion, he said.
Kurds were pressing a claim to be guaranteed both
deputy prime minister posts and Shi'ites wanted
water resources to be clearly placed under central
government authority.
Most Shi'ites live in the south, downstream of Kurds
and Sunnis, along Iraq's two great rivers, the
Tigris and Euphrates.
"Water is more important to us than oil,'' Qandeel
said, recalling the suffering of southern Shi'ites
under Saddam Hussein, who diverted rivers and
drained ancient marshlands.
Sunni opposition to the draft centers on the
argument that regional autonomy proposed in the
charter risks crippling central government and
handing control of oil resources to Kurds and
Shi'ites in the north and south.
U.S. diplomats, who have shepherded the process
hoping a deal could undermine the Sunni revolt, say
amendments introduced since the Shi'ite- and
Kurd-dominated parliament rammed through a first
draft on August 22 have gone some way to appeasing
Sunnis.
They argue that some Sunni leaders, whose community
largely shunned the January election that created
the interim assembly, favor the charter but are
intimidated by threats from rebels into staying
silent or criticizing the text in public.
Reuters
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