Deadlock remains over Iraqi constitution

TALKS on the Iraqi constitution remained deadlocked last night over a proposal to ban members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party from public life.

However, a Shi’ite negotiator reported progress in constitutional talks with the Sunni Arabs and Kurds on federalism.

Negotiator Jawad al-Maliki said the issue, known as “de-Ba’athification,” was especially difficult because it was something “we cannot drop”.

“We will not be easy with this point at all,” he said. Sunnis were defending the rights of former Ba’ath Party members, and “it is regrettable to us that the Sunnis and the Ba’ath are in the same pot”.

The progress came after Shi’ite negotiators, urged by US President George W Bush, had offered what they called their final compromise proposal to Sunnis to try to break the impasse over the draft constitution.

Mr Bush telephoned Shi’ite leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, on Thursday to urge consensus on the draft.

Mr al-Maliki said there was progress on the issue of federalism after Shi’ites guaranteed the parliament to be elected in December would take up the issue first.

Sunni negotiator Kamal Hamdoun said he and his colleagues were “studying the suggestions that we received”. Asked when they would respond, he said: “Maybe tomorrow.”

The constitution bans Saddam’s party and “its symbols” and grants legal status to a committee responsible for purging Ba’ath members from government and public life. Sunnis dominated party ranks.

Earlier in the day, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Kurdish mediator Barham Saleh were seen arriving at a Green Zone residence to meet leading Shi’ites.

Iraq’s Sunni vice-president said the current draft was written only by Shi’ites and Kurds and is “far from the aspirations of all Iraqi people”.

Under a federal system, the provinces would have significant powers, in contrast to Saddam’s regime in which Sunnis dominated a strong central government.

Sunnis have demanded a limit of three provinces, the number the Kurds have in their self-ruled region in the north. Sunnis have publicly accepted the continued existence of the Kurdish regional administration within its current boundaries.

But without limits, Sunnis fear not only a giant Shi’ite state in the south but also future bids by the Kurds to expand their region. That would leave the Sunnis cut off from Iraq’s oil wealth in the north and south.

Many Sunnis boycotted the January 30 election for the current parliament, which is dominated by Shi’ites and Kurds.

The issue of federalism is complex, and some key Sunnis have taken a harder line against it than their negotiators. Some Sunni clerics have also condemned as anti-Islamic parts of the document their own negotiators have accepted.

The constitution requires only a simple majority in the referendum, but if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces reject it, the charter will be defeated.

If voters this happens, parliament will be dissolved and elections held by December 15 to form a new one. This then starts drafting a new constitution.