Iraqi Leaders Sign Interim Constitution
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| Mon, 03-08-2004 - 8:43am |
Good news from Iraq!
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2622473
Members of Iraq’s Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution today after resolving a political impasse sparked by objections from the country’s most powerful cleric.
Before an audience of prominent Iraqi and American civilian and military officials, including the top administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, the 25 council members signed the document on an antique desk once owned by King Faisal, Iraq’s first monarch.
Council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum called the signing an “historic moment, decisive in the history of Iraqâ€.
“There is no doubt that this document will strengthen Iraqi unity in a way never seen before,†said Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish leader on the council.
The signing came nine days after a deadline set in a US timetable. The delay was caused by a mourning period following deadly bomb attacks on Shiite shrines, as well as political wrangling on the US-picked council.
The impasse strained relations between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders and highlighted the power of Iraq’s Shiite clergy.
The charter – which includes a 13-article bill of rights, enshrines Islam as one of the bases of law and outlines the shape of a parliament and presidency as well as a federal structure for the country. It will remain in effect until a permanent constitution is approved by a national referendum planned for late 2005.
About an hour before the signing ceremony began, insurgents fired mortar shells at two police stations in central Baghdad, injuring four people, including one policeman, Iraqi officials said.
Constitutional uncertainty persists.
Insurgents fired 10 rockets Sunday at the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation, the largest such attack in months. The barrage cast uncertainty over a ceremony to sign the country's long-awaited constitution just hours after Shia leaders finally agreed to sign it.
One civilian contractor was injured in the attack on the so-called Green Zone, although there was little material damage. Five rockets hit the Al-Rashid hotel, and others landed near the National Convention Centre, where Iraq's Governing Council hopes to sign the U.S.-backed document at an official ceremony today.
The rockets were fired from a white sport-utility vehicle parked outside the Green Zone. The SUV burst into flames during the barrage and was later destroyed by U.S. troops.
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Method in Sistani's muscle flexing
By Ehsan Ahrari
Just as the United States thought it was over a major hurdle when the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) signed that country's interim constitution on March 7, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani threw a wrench in the very process of transfer of sovereignty due to take place on June 30. In a letter to senior United Nations official Lakhdar Brahimi sent last Friday, the Shi'ite leader stated that the interim constitution - also known as the transitional provisional law - was a recipe for the breakup of the country, and that he would not participate in upcoming meetings with UN officials if the world body endorsed it. The Bush administration is left, once again, to figure out its next move. This muscle-flexing by the astute ayatollah is not without a purpose, though.
The interim constitution establishes a three-member presidency, one president and two deputy presidents. The president is likely to be a Shi'ite Arab, and the deputies will be a Sunni Arab and a Kurd. At the time of the signing of the constitution, Sistani made clear his disapproval of two clauses: one that gives effective veto power over a permanent constitution to Kurds, and one which enables deputy presidents to reject the decisions of a president. In fact, the Shiite members of the 25-member IGC stalled the signing ceremony due to Sistani's opposition. In addition, Sistani considers the three-member executive arrangement as institutionalizing sectarianism and ethnicity in the future political process of Iraq. Thus, his conclusion is that the new constitution "will lead to a dead end", that it will put the country "in an unstable situation", and that it "could lead to partition and division".
The United States' backing of the interim constitution and Sistani's opposition to it, in reality, represent two visions of Iraq that are inherently contradictory and equally incompatible. As a Western pluralistic democracy, the US operates on the age-old principle of "unity of diversity". In Sistani's view, the Coalition Provisional Authority's promotion of diversity in Iraq inexorably leads to diminution of the numerical strength of the Shi'ites. To be precise, the three-member executive branch, instead of guaranteeing the majority status of the Shi'ites of Iraq in the future governmental arrangement, assigns them a lesser status - ie, as merely one among three major sects, even though Shi'ites formulate over 60 percent of the population.
Whether the US wishes to lessen the status of the Shi'ites or not, it is very likely that by pluralizing the Iraqi presidency, Washington wants to ensure that a Shi'ite-dominated Iraq would not become another Islamic republic. So one cannot dismiss the perspective of Sistani that the US's motives regarding this issue are not exactly benign. Why else would it elevate the status of the Sunni Arabs and the Kurds by giving them one seat each in the deputy presidency? The seeds of mistrust on both sides are about to give birth to a bitter harvest of even more mistrust. Political conditions seem to be ripe for the outbreak of major Shi'ite violence in Iraq.
Iraqi leaders intend to ask the UN to legitimize the transfer of sovereignty by passing a resolution. Sistani is afraid that the Bush administration will exploit that opportunity to insert the endorsement of the interim constitution into such a resolution. That is why he has made it clear that any UN approval of the interim constitution would lead to his boycotting a meeting with its officials, who are about to arrive in Iraq to craft the interim authority that will take over power from the Coalition Provision Authority at the end of June.
While the UN envoys are pondering the modalities of their response to the ayatollah, the Bush administration is facing increased complexities in its own endeavors to define the future role of the international community in Iraq. The electoral defeat of the Jose Maria Aznar's government in Spain has increased the necessity of the UN endorsement of the interim constitution so that Spanish forces aren't withdrawn from Iraq. That was the condition stipulated by the incoming socialist government of Spain. As the Bush administration comes under increased scrutiny and criticism over its handling of the "war on terrorism" both inside and outside the US, the continued presence of Spanish troops in Iraq has become of considerable symbolic significance.
But don't expect any help from Sistani for the Bush administration and its predicament related to Iraq or the global "war on terrorism". He is fully focused on using the US's own predilections for democracy to ensure a legitimate and deserving dominant role for Iraq's Shi'ites in a future democratic Iraq.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FC25Ak01.html
>" The United States' backing of the interim constitution and Sistani's opposition to it, in reality, represent two visions of Iraq that are inherently contradictory and equally incompatible. As a Western pluralistic democracy, the US operates on the age-old principle of "unity of diversity". In Sistani's view, the Coalition Provisional Authority's promotion of diversity in Iraq inexorably leads to diminution of the numerical strength of the Shi'ites. To be precise, the three-member executive branch, instead of guaranteeing the majority status of the Shi'ites of Iraq in the future governmental arrangement, assigns them a lesser status - ie, as merely one among three major sects, even though Shi'ites formulate over 60 percent of the population. "<
But all too human!