Iraq: A Subtle Kurdish Power Grab

Iraqi Leaders won't Meet Deadline for Interim Constitution
Feb 28, 2004
Coalition Official Says Iraqi Leaders Will Not Make Deadline for Drafting Interim Constitution
By Matt Moore
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council failed to meet a deadline Saturday for drafting an interim constitution, with members deadlocked over issues including Islamic law and the status of women, a U.S. coalition official said.
The earliest the charter can be completed is Sunday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Drafting an interim constitution is a key step in U.S. plans for handing power to Iraqis on June 30. While a delay of a few days won't derail those plans, the dispute over the constitution reflects the depth and persistence of divisions among the 25 members of the Governing Council. The central problems: how to distribute power among the country's ethnic and religious groups and how to balance Islam and secularism.

Members met throughout the day Saturday, at one point joined by top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer in a bid to overcome the differences, said Hamed al-Bayati, an adviser to a leading Shiite party with a seat on the council.

The Feb. 28 deadline was agreed to by the Iraqi Governing Council last November. Bremer, who must approve the final document, has hinted he would veto any text enshrining Islam as the main source of law in Iraq, as conservatives on the council are seeking.

The document is to remain in effect until a permanent charter is adopted next year - but all sides are pushing to get their interests met in the interim constitution, which will likely be a basis for the permanent version.

In a sign of the tensions, some Shiite Muslim members stormed out of a meeting on the constitution late Friday in a dispute over Islamic law and the women's rights.

Around eight of the council's 13 Shiite members walked out of talks after a vote that canceled a controversial resolution that would have made Islamic law the basis for issues like divorce and inheritance. Resolution 137 had angered many women who fear their rights would be restricted.

"The meeting was supposed to be about the fundamental law, but the chairman raised the issue of 137. Then they brought women (spectators) into the council and pressured the vote," said Hamed al-Bayati, an adviser in a top Shiite party that participated in the walkout.

"The purpose was to affirm women's rights in the interim constitution," said Raja Habib al-Khuzaai, a Shiite woman on the council.

The interim constitution is supposed to serve as the foundation of the Iraqi government until a permanent charter can be completed next year. It will be the basis of the legal system after the U.S.-led coalition returns sovereignty to the Iraqis. Amid wrangling over the document, Iraqi and U.S. officials have also been unable to agree on a process for picking the provisional government due to take power June 30.

Al-Bayati said he expected the council to agree in principle for the constitution bridging the differences by Saturday night, though he said it could take two or three more days "to work out the wording."

Still being worked out is the wording for Islam's role in the country. Islamic conservatives on the council want the constitution to state that Islam is the main source of legislation and no law should be passed if it is contrary to Islamic values, said Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd council member.

Earlier this month, Bremer suggested he would wield his veto if Islamic sharia law were made the principal basis of the law.

Also unresolved are Kurdish demands for self-rule powers under a federal system - including control over their region's oil and natural resources and the right to maintain their militias as a distinct armed force.

Some Shiites on the council are demanding that all regions of the country should get whatever rights the Kurds ultimately receive, said al-Bayati, of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

"We are saying that the rest of the Iraqi people should have the same rights, whether in the north, the west or the south," he told The Associated Press.

The Supreme Council maintains its own armed militia, the Badr Brigades, mainly in southern cities. The south, where most of Iraq's Shiite majority is centered, also holds large oil reserves.

Sunni Muslims have expressed deep concerns over what they see as a Shiite drive to dominate the new government. Shiites were harshly repressed under Saddam Hussein's regime and now see the chance to rule.

The Supreme Council is also pressing for the presidency under the new constitution to reflect the Shiite majority in the country.

One proposal before the council would have a presidency that rotates between a Shiite, a Sunni and a Kurd. But al-Bayati said the presidency should either have one president, a Shiite, with a Sunni and a Kurd deputy or should rotate among five people - three Shiites, a Kurd and a Sunni.

Othman said that Shiites on the council were using their connections with Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani to press their demands, claiming that they have his support.

"I think this will make things more complicated," he said, adding the council's discussions should remain within its boundaries and not be influenced by outsiders.

In other developments:

-At a meeting of Iraqi donors in the United Arab Emirates, Iraqi Planning Minister Mehdi Hafedh sought $3.9 billion to fund reconstruction in the next 12 months and expected creditors to forgive his country $72 billion in debts. A U.S. official said about $10 billion will go into reconstruction projects by the time sovereignty reverts to Iraqis.

-Soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division arrested the leader of a local insurgent cell in Samarra, the Army said Saturday, and detained seven more - one involved with a Jan. 24 truck bombing that killed two Iraqis and injured 40. Samarra is in the Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-American resistance.

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