Sunnis end boycott of Iraq talks

SUNNI Arab members of a committee drafting Iraq’s new constitution ended their boycott yesterday, six days after they walked out to protest the assassinations of two fellow Sunni constitution commissioners.

The Sunni decision lifted the threat that the country’s new constitution would be a product of only two of three major Iraqi ethnic and religious groups, leaving out the Sunni Arabs who form the core of the insurgency and thus failing to provide a hope for a political exit from the incessant violence.

The killing continued yesterday, with a suicide minibus bomb attack outside a hotel used by US and other foreign contractors, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 18, hospital officials and police said. Two police commandos also died in a suicide attack.

Those attacks followed a truck bomb blast outside a Baghdad police station yesterday that killed at least 39 people, many of whom survived the initial blast but died from their burns.

A statement by the US command said a US soldier died in a roadside bombing yesterday in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

As of yesterday, at least 1,777 members of the US military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March, 2003. At least 1,365 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians.

Six of the 12 Sunnis on the committee rejoined their colleagues this morning at the meeting, said Baqir Hammoudi, secretary to Humam Hammoudi, the head of the committee.

Sunni member Ali al-Mishhedani said that the others were absent because they lived too far from Baghdad or had other commitments. One of the subcommittees working on constitutional articles involving citizenship and personal freedoms announced agreement on several issues. The new language will state all Iraqis are equal under the law “regardless of sex, race, origin, colour, religion, sect, belief, or opinion.”

The draft articles also affirm the family as “the nucleus of society and the state should preserve its values and religious and patriotic principles.”

It also bans child labour, violence within the family as a guarantee of “a balance between the role of women in the family and her work in society”.

The Sunnis had announced they were suspending participation in the committee to protest last Tuesday’s assassination of Sunni committee member Mijbil Issa and adviser Dhamim Hussein al-Obeidi.

Meanwhile, the minibus attack yesterday targeted a checkpoint outside the Sadeer Hotel. The victims were believed to have been Iraqi private security guards employed by the hotel. The dawn blast was followed by bursts of gunfire. About three hours after the first attack, a second suicide bomber targeted a former Saddam palace killing at least two and injuring 10.