Iraqi sandstorm halts constitution talks

Iraqis far apart over role of Islam
With a week left to finish Iraq's new constitution, Kurds and Shiites appear to be hardening positions.
By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD – Rather than huddling over constitutional drafts, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari made a pilgrimage over the weekend to the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, the home of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric.

"Ayatollah al-Sistani does not want to impose dictates on drafting the constitution, but according to my knowledge he hopes that Islam becomes the main source of legislation," Mr. Jaafari told reporters.

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BAGHDAD, August8 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A massive sandstorm Monday, August8 , derailed a crucial meeting of Iraqi leaders called to break the constitutional deadlock with just a week left to meet a deadline on writing the new charter.

The sandstorm coated Baghdad in a cloak of orange dust from early Monday leaving thousands of inhabitants suffocating and forcing others to stay indoors.

Traffic came to a virtual standstill, while those who dared step out wore masks or covered their mouths with a piece of cloth to keep the dust out.

The capital's main airport was also shut with no flights taking off.

The storm derailed crucial constitutional negotiations due to be held at President Jalal Talabani's residence, with many leaders unable to travel, including Kurdish leader Massud Barzani whose helicopter was grounded in the north

"Following consultations with President Jalal Talabani and others, it was decided to postpone the meeting from Monday to Tuesday because of the bad weather conditions," a presidential statement said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The meetings will resume on August 9 and continue over the following days in order to reach a consensus on the constitution, before forwarding it to parliament on August15 ," it said.

Talabani was supposed to host the second day of talks between Iraqis from across the sectarian and ethnic divide to try to break the current deadlock.

Not all leaders attended Sunday's meeting though.

Barzani was unable to fly from the northern Kurdish region to the capital because of the sand storm which by Monday morning had reduced visibility to a few yards (meters).

And Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari did not attend because of "security concerns" over his venturing a couple of miles (kilometres) from the fortified Green Zone that houses the government to the president's home, Goradaghi added.

Leaders have, however, agreed "to hold daily meetings until all points of disagreement are settled by consensus," the spokesman said, adding that they fully intended meeting the August 15 deadline.

"If they agree on the principle of reaching decisions by consensus it implies they are each ready to make concessions," he added.

Sunday evening "participants just put forward their respective points of view, but there was no time to get into details," the spokesman added.

Sticking Points

According to legislators, at least 18 key items remain to be settled, including women's rights, the country's official languages and the future of the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

"We are in a race against the clock," Mahmud Othman, a member of the constitutional drafting committee, told AFP, adding that there was "great US and British pressure" to meet the August15 dateline.

Talabani suggested there was no problem with the issue of federalism in the north, where his fellow Kurds have enjoyed a de facto state under US military protection since1991 , Reuters reported.

But he said calls for federalism in the Shiite south, home to the country's biggest oil reserves, were a matter for dispute.

Some prominent secular Shiites, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a powerful figure in the oil sector, are pushing for it.

Many Kurds further fear giving up hard-won ground and settling for something less than they have after the drafting of the constitution.

The Kurds carved three semi-independent provinces out of northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, sealing it off from the rest of the country under cover of a no-fly zone enforced on Saddam Hussein's air force by US and British warplanes.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani rejected Sunday an Islamic and Arabic identity for Iraq under the new constitution.

Shiite leader Abdel Aziz Hakim, who attended Sunday’s meeting, said in an interview with state-owned Iraqiya television that he was optimistic differences would be resolved.

"There are some points of disagreement and we still have some talking to do, but I am optimistic at the possibility of a consensus," Hakim said.

Disgruntled Shiites

Efforts to break an impasse on the constitution came a day after widespread frustrations with poor government services erupted into violence Sunday in the southern city of Samawa, Reuters reported.

Hundreds of people took to the streets and burned cars to protest power, water and sewage problems and police opened fire on the crowd, killing one person and wounding about40 , police in the mainly Shiite city said.

Shiites, who hoped for a brighter future after Saddam Hussein's fall and the emergence of a Shiite-led government in January elections, are still locked in a daily grind.

The protests were called by the local council, which is dominated by Samawa's town elders, not Shiite parties.

That suggests grassroots anger over what some say is widespread neglect by the new government.

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-08/08/article04.shtml

The Jewish G-d, The Christian God (except for W's fundamentalist GOD), and the Muslim Allah (who are all the same anyway), have formed a coalition to go agaisnt the U.S. and its flunkies who want to form a pro U.S. government. The sandstorm is just their first direct action; 11 more plagues to follow.

Confrontations across Iraq have left at least 30 people dead, including 10 police officers, as Iraqis are racing against time to hammer out the long-awaited constitution by 15 August.

Although an intense sandstorm forced meetings to be cancelled on Monday and brought delays on Tuesday, substantive talks were held, said Kamaran Garadaji, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Garadaji said the leaders at the meeting were determined to reach an agreement ahead of the 15 August deadline.

One of the key issues holding up the constitution is the scope of federalism, with Kurds insisting on maximum autonomy for their northern region, while Shia and Sunni Arabs are divided over whether other provinces should also get autonomy.

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad assured reporters that while the Kurds wanted autonomy, they would not be pushing for independence.

"Barzani himself has said that while the Kurds have the right to self-determination, they have decided not to exercise that ... the issue is not on their agenda," the ambassador said.

"There are some issues over the role of Islam and whether it should be 'a main source' or 'the main source' of legislation," he said.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, who had been unable to fly in from northern Iraq due to the bad weather, arrived late on Tuesday and was set to participate in talks on Wednesday, a Kurdish member on the constitution-drafting panel said.

Women's rights

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said on Tuesday morning that the question of the rights of women, much debated by the Western press, was not a great problem.

A small group of conservative Iraqi women mounted a counter demonstration to one organised by 50 of their liberal opponents in central Baghdad on Tuesday over the issue of women's rights.

"We want the constitutional drafting committee to hear our voices," said Environment Minister Narmine Othman, associated with the liberal group. "We fear that some articles will be unjust for women."

Counter-demonstrator Fadia Al-Aaraji, carrying a banner stating the rights of Iraqi women were guaranteed by Islam, said: "We are demanding that the Iraqi people's Islamic identity be respected and included in the constitution."

Continuing hostility

A driver in a booby-trapped car drove into a US convoy waiting at an intersection on Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing at least three people, including one American soldier, and wounding at least 52.

A US marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division was killed on Monday by small arms fire in Ramadi, 110km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, the US military said on Tuesday.

At least three of the attacks, most of them in Baghdad, were claimed by the group headed by al-Qaida's front man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The latest deaths brought the number of US service members killed in Iraq this month to 32. .

At least 10 Iraqi police officers were shot dead in five attacks in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

Deposed governor

The governor of Baghdad, who vowed to save the broken city after Saddam Hussein's fall, seemed himself to have fallen victim to its growing chaos on Tuesday, saying gunmen ousted him and installed a rival.

Alaa al-Tamimi said he was not at his office at the time but 120 gunmen installed Hussein al-Tahhan in his place on Monday.

His account of events could not be immediately confirmed and was challenged by al-Tahhan, who is governor of the governorate of Baghdad, which includes the city and its suburbs.

Only one thing is clear. Confusion reigns at city hall.

"I am appointed by the state," al-Tamimi said. "I handed in my resignation three times because I knew there would be trouble. Acts like these set a very dangerous precedent for a country that wants to be free and democratic."

The secular-minded engineer said the Shia Islamist-dominated Baghdad provincial council had been keen to replace him since it was elected in January, mirroring power struggles that have fractured the national government.

Routine arrangement

Shia and Kurds came to power in January elections while Arab Sunnis dominant under Saddam have not boycotted the elections in a new political landscape fraught with sectarian tensions.

Denying that he entered the offices by force, al-Tahhan said he had made a routine arrangement to meet the governor's staff.

"I was greeted at the door by the Deputy Mayor Amir al-Su'aidi. He led me in person to the office and I told my guards to stay outside," he said.

"It's absurd to think I could force my way in. I only came with five Land Cruisers. The whole governorate only has 15, while he [al-Tamimi] has 100 personal guards."

Who is the governor?

Uncertainty over who is mayor is not new. Before al-Tamimi took office, US soldiers briefly arrested self-proclaimed postwar governor Muhammad al-Zubaidi for exercising authority they said he did not have.

Al-Tamimi returned to Baghdad from years in exile in the oil-rich Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi vowing to rescue a city battered by wars and United Nations sanctions under Saddam.

Armed with a $75 million annual budget and 9000 employees left from Saddam's days, he vowed to clean up city hall.

"We hope Baghdad will return to be the mother of the world," he once said of a city that is now sliding deeper into car and human bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and rampant crime.

Al-Tahhan - a member of a leading Shia Islamist party - did not confirm whether he had replaced al-Tamimi but said the Shia-led council has the authority to force him out: "Baghdad provincial council can replace him because he was appointed by Baghdad's council."
Agencies

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