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Shiites push laws to define how to divide
Iraqi regions
7.9.2006 |
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BAGHDAD, Iraq,
September 6 , -- Shiite lawmakers are pushing ahead
with legislation that would provide a mechanism to
carve Iraq into largely autonomous regions, angering
some Sunni Arab lawmakers who say Shiites should
first follow through on a promise to allow
Parliament to re-examine the issue of federalism.
Allowing Shiite-dominated provinces in southern Iraq
the means to form their own semiautonomous regions
has been a top priority of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,
leader of the powerful Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite political party.
Federalism provisions in the new Constitution,
approved by voters last fall, allow such regions to
be formed. Sunnis had been reluctant to support the
charter, fearing those provisions would leave the
country’s oil wealth in the hands of Shiites in the
south and Kurds in the north.
To win Sunnis over, Shiite representatives changed
the charter so Parliament could later decide whether
to narrow those provisions.
Now, lawmakers from Mr. Hakim’s party are backing
legislation that would define the process for
breaking the country into autonomous regions.
Shiite representatives say the proposal would not
set that process in motion, and say they are merely
trying to meet a constitutional deadline for
defining it.
But some Sunni leaders say the Shiites should first
allow debate on amending the Constitution. The new
proposal “is an obstacle to the national
reconciliation,” said Dhafir al-Ani, a member of the
Sunni bloc in Parliament. “This draft could be
presented after amending the Constitution.”
Saleh Mutlak, an outspoken Sunni lawmaker, said
Shiite lawmakers should instead focus on the
country’s fragile economy and security. “These
people should take care of these things, not
federalism,” he said. “The government is
disintegrating and there is no other power except
the militias.”
Mr. Hakim has previously said he has no intention of
changing the main federalism provisions.
Nevertheless, Ridha Jawad Taki, a senior member of
Mr. Hakim’s party, insisted that Shiites were still
open to debating the provisions.
It may be one or two years before anyone starts the
actual process of forming an autonomous region, Mr.
Taki said in an interview.
“Right now, we are making a mechanism and procedure
for the Iraqi people in the provinces to make use of
this right in the Constitution,” he said.
Other Shiite parties in Parliament say they favor a
slower path toward federal territories. Nasir al-Saadi,
a member of the bloc loyal to the radical cleric
Moktada al-Sadr, said he did not object to a
mechanism for carving the country into regions. But
he said that it would be a long time before the
country was ready to do that and that it should not
happen until the “occupation” had ended.
“This isn’t the time to implement federalism,” he
said.
Hassan al-Shimiri, a member of Fadhila, another
Shiite party, was also cautious. Within the dominant
Shiite governing coalition, he said, “there are many
blocs that still have reservations about the
activation of federalism.”
Some lawmakers worry that there is a limited amount
of time to bring Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish
politicians together. The speaker of Parliament,
Mahmoud Mashhadani, an outspoken and controversial
Sunni Arab, warned lawmakers on Wednesday that
Iraq’s sectarian factions might have only a few
months to do so.
“Let’s start talking the same language,” Mr.
Mashhadani told lawmakers, according to Reuters. “We
have three to four months to reconcile with each
other. If the country doesn’t survive this, it will
go under.”
Lawmakers also approved a measure on Wednesday that
would allow private companies to import gasoline
into Iraq, a proposal intended to ease perpetual
fuel shortages.
Sectarian executions and other violence continued
Wednesday. News agencies reported that as many as 60
Iraqis were killed or found dead throughout the
country. Such tallies, however, have proven to
greatly understate death tolls.
Iraqi officials also announced that 27 “terrorists”
had been executed in Baghdad for crimes of rape and
murder.
On Wednesday the chief American military spokesman
in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said that
now that last-minute “technical” details had been
hammered out, the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki,
would assume control of the Iraqi armed forces on
Thursday.
“Tomorrow is gigantic,” General Caldwell said. “It’s
the one event that puts the prime minister directly
in the operational control of his military forces.”
However, initially that control will be limited. In
addition to Iraq’s nascent air and naval forces, Mr.
Maliki will be assuming control of only one Iraqi
Army division on Thursday, General Caldwell said.
Control of other divisions will be handed over at a
rate of perhaps two per month, he said.
General Caldwell also disclosed that Hamid Juma
Faris Jouri al-Saeedi, whose arrest had been hailed
by Iraqi officials as the capture of the No. 2
leader of Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq, was actually
detained on June 19.
The announcement was
delayed so Iraqi and American forces could take
advantage of information Mr. Saeedi disclosed to
interrogators, he said.
Questions also remain about Mr. Saeedi’s exact role
in Al Qaeda. American officials have played down
Iraqi assertions that he was the second-ranking
official in the terrorist group.
American officials say Mr. Saeedi supervised the
insurgent who led the bombing of the Askariya shrine
in Samarra on Feb. 22, an attack that set off a
spasm of sectarian killings that continue to this
day.
But it remains unclear what role Mr. Saeedi played
in that attack, and American officials have not said
whether Mr. Saeedi ordered or planned the bombing.
nytimes com
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