Iraqis Call U.S. Goal on Constitution Impossible

washingtonpost.com
Iraqis Call U.S. Goal on Constitution Impossible
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 30, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Sept. 29 -- Iraqis involved in the effort to write a new constitution said today that completing the document in six months, the goal set by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell last week, will be impossible to meet because of differences over how to select the drafters and more profound disagreements over the role of Islamic law and the basic contours of a new political system.

A committee of lawyers, scholars and religious figures that was supposed to propose a way to select delegates to a constitutional convention has not been able to agree on a preferred method, according to members of the country's Governing Council and others familiar with the process. The committee is scheduled to present a report to the council on Tuesday that will outline several options instead of endorsing a single approach, the members said.

The shift of the decision to the 24-member Governing Council, which could choose to debate the issue or kick it back to the committee, the members said, has effectively delayed the selection process for weeks, if not months.

The Bush administration regards a new constitution and subsequent elections as essential prerequisites to the end of the occupation and the exit of American troops. It had wanted the document to be written by next spring. Powell said last week that six months was "a good timeline" for the creation of the constitution.

"It's impossible to do it in six months as Mr. Powell wants," said council member Dara Noureddine, the council's liaison with the committee. "It's unreasonable. It takes more time than this -- much more."

Noureddine, the council member most involved in determining how to draft the constitution, said in an interview today that Iraqis first need to decide how to select the drafters. Then those people will have to be chosen. Once they finally gather to begin drafting the document, they will have to sort through a raft of contentious issues, including whether to adopt a presidential or parliamentary system, and whether Islam is recognized as the sole basis for laws. Resolving those matters almost certainly will involve lengthy debates among not just the delegates but politicians, religious figures and other prominent members of Iraqi society.

"The most difficult battle will be the battle of the constitution," said Noshirwan Mustafa, a senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the country's two large Kurdish political parties. Noureddine and other Iraqi leaders insisted that the entire process cannot be accomplished in less than a year. "This is our future," he said. "This is for the next generation, not just for the next few years. One should not be hasty in formulating the constitution."

Samir Shakir, another council member, said there is a general consensus on the council that the constitution should be written as quickly as possible. "But we have to temper that with reality," he said. "We have to let the process take its course. We can't have absolute deadlines."

Noureddine and other council members said a longer timetable to write the constitution should not result in a longer occupation. They rejected the Bush administration's view that a constitution and elections must precede a transfer of sovereignty, insisting that the issues should be separate.

Bush administration officials contend that if they transfer sovereignty before a constitution is drafted and a democratically elected government is seated, the interim political authority could prolong or subvert the process. "If a constitution has to be drafted before there can be a government, you bet we'll get a constitution," one U.S. official said.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, has said the constitution will be "written by Iraqis, for Iraqis." But he has also said the Bush administration expects the final document to embody principles adopted during a U.S.-sponsored conference of Iraqis in April near the ancient ruins of Ur. Those principles include federalism, democracy, nonviolence, a respect for diversity and a role for women.

Before those issues can be hashed out, however, Iraqi leaders must select delegates to a constitutional convention. That seemingly simple issue has emerged as a tricky hurdle.

Shiite Muslim clerics have demanded that the delegates be chosen by popular vote -- a method that likely would give Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of the population, a majority at the convention. One of Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a religious edict this past summer calling for the drafters of the constitution to be elected.

"The Iraqi people must be able to choose the people who are going to write their constitution," said Adel Abdel Mehdi, a senior leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a large Shiite party.

But other Iraqis, including some Shiites and rival Sunnis, fear that elections would result in Shiites emerging as the dominant bloc at the convention and that they would use that influence to push for a greater role for Islam in government. Opponents of an election also argue that it would be logistically challenging -- there are no accurate voter rolls -- and could risk manipulation by the two best-organized groups in the country: radical religious elements and former members of ousted president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

As a result, some Iraqis want the delegates to be handpicked by the U.S.-appointed council or another group of Iraqi leaders. "We need a room full of wise men, people who are acknowledged to be pillars of the community," said Shakir, the council member. "We need enlightened people writing the constitution, not just the most popular people."

But council members acknowledge that if they choose the delegates, it would seem to many Iraqis as if the United States was trying to manipulate the process. Also, this would risk rejection of the document by Sistani.

A compromise approach that appears to be gaining support is to hold caucuses in provinces where religious, political and tribal leaders could assemble and select a few delegates to represent them at the convention. The 250 or so delegates could be augmented with a few appointed members, particularly legal scholars and other academics, supporters of that approach said.

"Caucuses make the most sense," said council member Mowaffak Rubaie. "It allows people to have a say in the process but you don't have the problems with trying to hold an election."

Rubaie, who said he delivers regular reports on the council's meetings to Sistani, said he believes the Shiite leader would acquiesce to selection through caucuses.

Shakir said he is frustrated that the committee charged with finding a way to select delegates did not reach a decision. "It was their job," he said. "It's an attractive option for them to duck the issue, but it will not do."
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Correspondent Karl Vick contributed to this report.