Uncle Sam
03-05-2004, 03:10 PM
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/256517|top|03-05-2004::12:09|*******.html
Who saw this coming ? Raise your hands...Higher !
Last-minute objections by five Shi'ite leaders forced the indefinite postponement of Friday's signing of an interim constitution for Iraq, threatening U.S. plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
BAGHDAD (*******) - Last-minute objections by five Shi'ite leaders forced the indefinite postponement of Friday's signing of an interim constitution for Iraq, threatening U.S. plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
Political sources said the five dissenters were following the advice of Iraq's most revered Shi'ite leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and were pushing for greater Shi'ite influence in a sovereign Iraq -- which may put them on a collision course with Sunni Arabs and Kurds who also want their voices heard.
Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council announced last Monday it had agreed on an interim constitution after days of heated talks, and musicians and a choir of children had assembled for the signing ceremony at 4 p.m. (8 a.m. EST).
But the ceremony never took place. It was the second delay in signing the document -- a ceremony scheduled for Wednesday was postponed after bomb attacks on Shi'ite worshippers the previous day killed 181 people in Baghdad and Kerbala.
Hamid al-Bayati, from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said five Shi'ite Governing Council members had objected to several aspects of the document. Shi'ites make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population.
SHI'ITES AND KURDS AT ODDS
One major point of contention was a clause on a referendum due to be held next year to approve a permanent constitution once it has been drawn up. The clause states that even if a majority of Iraqis approves the constitution, it can be vetoed if two-thirds of voters in three provinces reject it.
The clause was inserted by the Kurds, who run three provinces of northern Iraq and want the power to veto any attempt to rein in their considerable autonomy.
"At the last minute, the very last minute, there was a switch by the Shi'ites and they objected strongly to a clause which says that if three provinces don't agree on the constitution then it goes back (to parliament)," Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the council, told *******.
"They consider that a provocation and the imposition of the will of the minority on the majority."
Senior coalition officials played down the delay, saying it was not about priority issues -- the role of Islam in the state and the role of women -- and differences were being settled.
"If you want neat and tidy, get a dictatorship," one official said, adding that the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, was sitting in on the council talks. A council source said Bremer was negotiating individually with the five holdouts.
"Bremer thinks it's an incredibly healthy process and he wants it to play out," the coalition official said.
Governing Council sources said another point of disagreement was the structure of Iraq's presidential council. They said Shi'ites wanted a five-member rather than a three-member presidential council, with three Shi'ites, a Sunni and a Kurd.
Bayati said the council members who raised objections were Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI, Ibrahim Jaafari of the Dawa party, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, current council president Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, and Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.
ROAD MAP FOR DEMOCRACY
Iraqi and U.S. officials say the transitional constitution sees elections for a transitional assembly by the end of January 2005. That assembly will draft a permanent constitution and prepare for full polls by the end of 2005.
The document does not specify the shape of the government that will take over when Washington hands over power on June 30, a fact some political sources said was also a problem for Shi'ite leaders.
The constitution includes a bill of rights U.S. officials say is comprehensive, but the campaigning group Human Rights Watch said it did not do enough to guarantee women equal rights.
As well as struggling to get Iraqis to agree on a political road map, the U.S.-led administration is also battling a guerrilla insurgency which officers say is increasingly being led by foreign militants, some with links to al Qaeda.
Washington says a suspected al Qaeda operative, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is the prime suspect in a string of major attacks including Tuesday's bombings.
"He's somewhere in Iraq," the U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, General John Abizaid, said in a television interview. "We're looking for him hard and we've found quite a few of his operatives... and we've uncovered an awful lot of the work that he's doing."
Who saw this coming ? Raise your hands...Higher !
Last-minute objections by five Shi'ite leaders forced the indefinite postponement of Friday's signing of an interim constitution for Iraq, threatening U.S. plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
BAGHDAD (*******) - Last-minute objections by five Shi'ite leaders forced the indefinite postponement of Friday's signing of an interim constitution for Iraq, threatening U.S. plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
Political sources said the five dissenters were following the advice of Iraq's most revered Shi'ite leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and were pushing for greater Shi'ite influence in a sovereign Iraq -- which may put them on a collision course with Sunni Arabs and Kurds who also want their voices heard.
Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council announced last Monday it had agreed on an interim constitution after days of heated talks, and musicians and a choir of children had assembled for the signing ceremony at 4 p.m. (8 a.m. EST).
But the ceremony never took place. It was the second delay in signing the document -- a ceremony scheduled for Wednesday was postponed after bomb attacks on Shi'ite worshippers the previous day killed 181 people in Baghdad and Kerbala.
Hamid al-Bayati, from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said five Shi'ite Governing Council members had objected to several aspects of the document. Shi'ites make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population.
SHI'ITES AND KURDS AT ODDS
One major point of contention was a clause on a referendum due to be held next year to approve a permanent constitution once it has been drawn up. The clause states that even if a majority of Iraqis approves the constitution, it can be vetoed if two-thirds of voters in three provinces reject it.
The clause was inserted by the Kurds, who run three provinces of northern Iraq and want the power to veto any attempt to rein in their considerable autonomy.
"At the last minute, the very last minute, there was a switch by the Shi'ites and they objected strongly to a clause which says that if three provinces don't agree on the constitution then it goes back (to parliament)," Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the council, told *******.
"They consider that a provocation and the imposition of the will of the minority on the majority."
Senior coalition officials played down the delay, saying it was not about priority issues -- the role of Islam in the state and the role of women -- and differences were being settled.
"If you want neat and tidy, get a dictatorship," one official said, adding that the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, was sitting in on the council talks. A council source said Bremer was negotiating individually with the five holdouts.
"Bremer thinks it's an incredibly healthy process and he wants it to play out," the coalition official said.
Governing Council sources said another point of disagreement was the structure of Iraq's presidential council. They said Shi'ites wanted a five-member rather than a three-member presidential council, with three Shi'ites, a Sunni and a Kurd.
Bayati said the council members who raised objections were Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI, Ibrahim Jaafari of the Dawa party, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, current council president Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, and Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.
ROAD MAP FOR DEMOCRACY
Iraqi and U.S. officials say the transitional constitution sees elections for a transitional assembly by the end of January 2005. That assembly will draft a permanent constitution and prepare for full polls by the end of 2005.
The document does not specify the shape of the government that will take over when Washington hands over power on June 30, a fact some political sources said was also a problem for Shi'ite leaders.
The constitution includes a bill of rights U.S. officials say is comprehensive, but the campaigning group Human Rights Watch said it did not do enough to guarantee women equal rights.
As well as struggling to get Iraqis to agree on a political road map, the U.S.-led administration is also battling a guerrilla insurgency which officers say is increasingly being led by foreign militants, some with links to al Qaeda.
Washington says a suspected al Qaeda operative, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is the prime suspect in a string of major attacks including Tuesday's bombings.
"He's somewhere in Iraq," the U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, General John Abizaid, said in a television interview. "We're looking for him hard and we've found quite a few of his operatives... and we've uncovered an awful lot of the work that he's doing."