Sun, Aug 14, 2005 page7

• Iraqi group races to draft constitution

  DEADLINE The group that is writing the document has reached agreement on the distribution of oil wealth and the state religion, but disagree on other points

  • AP
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  Roadside bombs and ambushes killed at least nine people and wounded 11 others yesterday, as Iraqi leaders reported tentative agreements on issues such as distribution of oil wealth and Islam as the state religion with only two days to go to finalize the new constitution. A Shiite member of the committee writing the constitution, Saad Jawad Kandil, said the draft would be submitted to parliament today -- one day before the deadline for legislative approval.

  But a Sunni member, Saleh al-Mutlaq, said he knew nothing about plans to submit the document today. A series of meetings were underway around the capital yesterday to try to make tomorrow's parliamentary approval deadline.

  Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, said late Friday that Shiites and Kurds have agreed that the country be called the Iraqi Federal Republic and that Islam be the religion of the state. But Kandil, the Shiite, said the country would be named "The Iraqi Republic" -- a compromise between Kurds who opposed "Islamic" in the name and the Shiites who opposed "federal."

  

  Cindy Sheehan, third from left holding cross, points at the vehicle carrying President Bush and first lady Laura Bush while standing with other parents of soldiers killed in Iraq as the motorcade passes their camp on the side of the road near Crawford, Texas, on Friday. Sheehan is seeking a meeting with President Bush to discuss the death of her son Casey Sheehan.

  PHOTO: AP

  Othman said Kurds from Kirkuk would receive compensation or be permitted to return to city. He said Shiites and Kurds, who hold majority seats in parliament, had offered concessions to each other, but said disagreements with Sunni Arabs had been more difficult to resolve.

  Other major issues remained unresolved, such as the role of Islam in state laws and how the government should distribute the country's wealth. Shiites also want a special status for their clerical hierarchy in Najaf. There are also differences on whether to declare Saddam's Baath party a "fascist" institution.

  Yesterday, al-Mutlaq, the Sunni committee member, said the groups reached a preliminary agreement three days ago that distribution of oil revenues would be shared by the central and regional governments.

  Al-Mutlaq did not elaborate. But a Shiite member, Nadim al-Jaberi, said leaders agreed that regional governments in oil-producing areas would keep five percent of revenues with the rest sent to the central government for distribution to other areas based on their population.

  Negotiations were thrown into a tailspin Thursday when the leader of the biggest Shiite party, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, called for a Shiite autonomous government in central and southern Iraq -- including the southern oil fields. That enraged the Sunni Arab delegates, who had accepted the Kurdish self-ruled area in the north, which has existed since 1991, but who feared that Shiite aspirations confirmed their worst fears of federalism. Al-Mutlaq said it would take "divine intervention" to break the impasse. Following al-Hakim's call, Sunni clerics Friday urged their followers to register and vote in the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum -- but against the charter if it contains federalism.

  "We, in this country, don't want federalism because we are a unified nation in this country and we feel that Iraq with all its elements is for all" of us, Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaie, of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, said at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque.

  Sunni clerics led a Sunni boycott of the Jan. 30 parliamentary election. The Sunnis appear to be sending a warning that they can bring down the constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum. According to the country's interim charter, the constitution will be void if it is rejected by two-thirds of voters in three provinces. Sunnis are a majority in the provinces of Anbar, Salahuddin, Ninevah and Diyala.

  In other developments, four civilians died when a roadside bomb exploded near Samarra, 95km north of Baghdad. Two Iraqi police were also shot to death in Samarra. In Baghdad, police Major Ahmed Kamil was killed in an ambush in a western neighborhood.

  One Iraqi soldier was shot dead in the Dora district of south Baghdad. An unidentified man was found dead in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. His hands were cuffed and he had been shot in the head and legs. Seven people -- three of them civilians -- were hurt in a blast in eastern Baghdad, and four others were injured in separate bombings and shootings in Dora.

  US officials hope the violence will recede in time if Iraqis can put together a fully constitutional, democratic government. Key to that is a new constitution which parliament must approve tomorrow.
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