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Iraq Sunnis reject federal proposal
Sunni members of the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution have rejected Kurdish demands for a federal state, saying it cannot be implemented under foreign military occupation and an unstable security situation.
The proposal came a day before Sunni, Shia and Kurdish political leaders were scheduled to meet to try to thrash out differences on such sensitive issues as Iraq's identity, the role of Islam, federalism and the distribution of wealth to meet the 15 August deadline for parliamentary approval.
The Sunnis said federalism could be implemented in the future when there is a parliament that represents all Iraqis, said member Kamal Hamdan, in reference to the National Assembly that only has 17 Sunni Arab members of the 275 legislators.
"The proposal rejects federalism at the present time because it is difficult to implement it when the country is occupied and the security situation is unstable," Hamdan said.
Most Kurds and some Shia are for federalism, but Sunnis have been against it from the beginning, fearing it will lead to dividing the country.
Rights
The Sunni proposal came two days after Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said "the Kurdish people have the right to secede".
Saturday's move by Sunni Arabs to keep the decision on federalism for the future parliament seems to be because they fear that the predominantly Kurdish and Shia parliament can approve it easily.
Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the 30 January general elections after calls by some of their leaders and threats by fighters, are expected to participate in bigger numbers on the 15 December elections.
Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the 71-member committee drafting the constitution, had called political leaders from the Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shia communities to meet to see whether they can forge compromises to finish the document by the 15 August deadline.
Hamdan said the Sunni proposal suggests decentralised administrations in each province that work closely with the central government in Baghdad.
He added that the northern Kurdish provinces of Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dahuk continue running their affairs as they have since 1991, when they established an autonomous region.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E8A2595-59FE-4A6E-B60E-A8E03957BE8A.htm
The Sunnis said federalism could be implemented in the future when there is a parliament that represents all Iraqis, said member Kamal Hamdan, in reference to the National Assembly that only has 17 Sunni Arab members of the 275 legislators.
"The proposal rejects federalism at the present time because it is difficult to implement it when the country is occupied and the security situation is unstable," Hamdan said.
Most Kurds and some Shia are for federalism, but Sunnis have been against it from the beginning, fearing it will lead to dividing the country.
Rights
The Sunni proposal came two days after Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said "the Kurdish people have the right to secede".
Saturday's move by Sunni Arabs to keep the decision on federalism for the future parliament seems to be because they fear that the predominantly Kurdish and Shia parliament can approve it easily.
Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the 30 January general elections after calls by some of their leaders and threats by fighters, are expected to participate in bigger numbers on the 15 December elections.
Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the 71-member committee drafting the constitution, had called political leaders from the Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shia communities to meet to see whether they can forge compromises to finish the document by the 15 August deadline.
Hamdan said the Sunni proposal suggests decentralised administrations in each province that work closely with the central government in Baghdad.
He added that the northern Kurdish provinces of Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dahuk continue running their affairs as they have since 1991, when they established an autonomous region.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E8A2595-59FE-4A6E-B60E-A8E03957BE8A.htm
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Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan, said the Kurds would not compromise on their demands that include a federal Iraq and the incorporation of the northern oil centre of Kirkuk in their autonomous region.
“We will not accept that Iraq’s identity is Islamic,” Barzani told an emergency session of the autonomous Kurdistan parliament.
He also rejected suggestions that Iraq be termed an Arab nation. ”Let Arab Iraq be part of the Arab nation -- we are not,” the Kurdish leader said.
Barzani, one of the leaders of the 4.5 million Kurds in Iraq, will take part in a national conference of top Iraqi leaders on Sunday in Baghdad in a bid to break the deadlock on agreeing to a new draft constitution.
“This is a golden chance for Kurds and Kurdistan -- if we don’t do what is important for Kurdistan, there will be no second chance. We will not make our final decision in Baghdad, the Kurdish parliament will decide,” he said.
The Kurds want a constitution that will guarantee federalism and preserve their region’s autonomy, wrested from Saddam Hussein 14 years ago.
Barzani also insisted his region would retain its Peshmerga militias, despite calls by Baghdad that they be incorporated in the national army.
The emergency meeting of the Kurdish parliament prompted a two-day postponement of the national conference to break the constitutional deadlock.
The deadlock revolves around federalism, what the official languages of the new Iraq will be, the relation between religion and state, the rights of women and the future of Kirkuk.
“We are worried about comments from some on the committee,” said the regional parliament’s speaker, Adnan Mufti, who is also a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the former rebel group of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Mufti said the Kurds were ready to endorse the charter “if all parties understand a constitution should be based on rights for all Iraqis.”
He added: “There is no way to have a unified Iraq without federalism.”
Many leaders of Iraq’s Arab majority -- both Shiite and Sunni -- have voiced concern that federalism could open the way to secession, although the Kurds insist it is the best way of preventing the breakup of Iraq.
Kurdish hopes of a federal structure for Iraq were boosted Friday after Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani gave a favourable response to the idea during a meeting with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
“Sistani does not disagree with the principle of federalism if the Iraqi people choose it,” Jaafari told reporters after meeting the reclusive cleric at his home in the Shiite pilgrimage city of Najaf.
Iraqi leaders insisted they remained on track to complete a final draft for debate by parliament by August 15 ahead of a referendum in mid-October.
The referendum will be followed by new nationwide elections in December. The national conference is due to report back by August 12, and any matters still unresolved will be put to parliament for decision by majority vote.
As the debate on constitution raged, about 1,000 US marines and Iraqi soldiers combed western Iraq, a region that has emerged as a killing field for marines with 40 US troops dying there in the past fortnight alone.
The latest security operation, code-named Quick Strike, was being conducted in areas of Haditha, Haqliniyah and Barwanah.
The US military claimed some success on Saturday saying it had thwarted car bombings in the region after finding three vehicles packed with explosives following a tip-off by a local inhabitant. It said the security forces blew up the cars.
"We should be flexible in negotiations but that does not mean we should haggle over our demands," Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani told the Kurdish parliament in Arbil, capital of their autonomous zone in the north.
"There is still argument over some basic points, such as Iraq's identity, Kurdistan's borders, the future of the peshmerga (Kurdish militia) and distributing natural resources."
The role of Islamic law, Iraq's Arab identity and control of the northern oilfields are key issues for Kurdish negotiators.
The Iraqi government and its sponsors in Washington hope the constitution will take the sting out of a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led political order established by the U.S. invasion and ensure U.S. troops start pulling out.
Political leaders had been expected to meet in Baghdad on Friday to ease differences that remain over the wording of the document, a draft of which is due to be completed by Aug. 15.
But the meeting was postponed until Sunday after some delegates, mainly Kurds including Barzani, said they could not make it, citing Saturday's parliamentary debate in Arbil.
It will be held on Sunday evening at the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, leader of another Kurdish party and a long-time rival of Barzani.
Several major sticking points remain among the 71 members of the drafting committee, splitting them along sectarian and ethnic lines between non-Arab Kurds, who are mostly Sunnis, and Arabs, themselves divided into Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
One Kurdish politician, Ghafour Makhmouri, told the session: "All our demands for the panel are red lines that cannot be crossed. We will not soften them, they are our minimum rights."
FEDERAL STATE
A major sticking point is federalism, and how resources should be divided in a federal state. Kurds, who have had broad autonomy since U.S. aircraft beat back Saddam Hussein's forces in 1991, want a strict definition that extends the sort of devolved power they enjoy to other parts of Iraq.
Shi'ites generally like the concept, but want a looser interpretation. Sunni Arabs, once Iraq's favoured community under Saddam Hussein, strongly oppose the Kurds' vision of a heavily federated state as a precursor to the break-up of Iraq.
They also fear losing out to Kurdish demands for control of Iraq's northern oilfields around the city of Kirkuk.
The role of Islam is another key sticking point. Shi'ites, the dominant group in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, have pushed for naming Islamic sharia law as the "main source" of legislation and naming the country an "Islamic republic" -- similar to the designation of neighbouring Shi'ite-led Iran.
But Kurdish leaders, with a strongly secular background, and other secular parties and women's groups oppose emphasising the role of Islam.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a devout Shi'ite, travelled to see Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric on Friday to discuss the disputed draft -- a move that irritated some Sunni Arabs and Kurds who dislike the growing power of Shi'ite clerics.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said the constitution should contain "nothing that conflicts with Islamic sharia law", Jaafari said, but did not say if he wanted wording that would term sharia as the sole legal source.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BAK648242.htm