US administrator could block Islamic law in Iraq

Iraq’s US administrator suggested today he would block any move by Iraqi leaders to make Islamic law the main source of legislation in the interim constitution, a move women’s groups fear would threaten their rights.

Meanwhile, roadside bombs killed two more US soldiers and a child was killed in a school yard grenade blast.

Four other children were injured. They apparently triggered the explosive while they were playing, Iraqi police said.

The US military also said that an US civilian from a Christian religious group was shot dead in a weekend ambush south of the Baghdad.

A grenade exploded Monday in an elementary school playground in Baghdad, killing one child and wounding four others.

During a visit to a women’s centre in Karbala, administrator Paul Bremer said the current draft of the interim constitution, due to take effect at the end of this month, would make Islam the state religion and “a source of inspiration for the law” – but not the main source.

However, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council and a Sunni Muslim hard-liner, has proposed making Islamic law the “principal basis” of legislation.

Iraqi women’s groups fear that could cost them the rights they hold under Iraq’s long-time secular system, especially in such areas as divorce, child support and inheritance.

Bremer was asked what would happen if Iraqi leaders wrote into the interim charter that Islamic sharia law is the principal basis of legislation.

“Our position is clear,” Bremer replied. “It can’t be law until I sign it.”

Bremer must sign all measures passed by the 25 member council before they can become law.

Iraq’s powerful Shiite clergy, however, wants the interim constitution to be approved by an elected legislature.

Under US plans, a permanent constitution would not be drawn up and voted on by the Iraqi people until 2005.

Under most interpretations of Islamic law, women’s rights to seek divorce are strictly limited and they only receive half the inheritance of men.

Islamic law also allows for polygamy and often permits marriage of girls at a younger age than secular law.

Earlier this month, 45 members of the US House of Representatives signed a letter to President George Bush urging him to preserve women’s rights in Iraq.

US leverage with the Iraqis will decline, however, after the coalition returns sovereignty to an Iraqi administration at the end of June.

The United States also hopes to hand over more responsibility for internal security to US-trained Iraqi forces, thereby reducing US casualties as the November presidential election approaches.

In the latest attacks, a US soldier from Task Force Iron Horse was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bombing in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad.

One of the wounded was critically injured and the other three were in guarded condition, the military said.

Two Iraqis were arrested, one with a mobile phone that may have been used to detonate the bomb, said a division spokesman in Tikrit.

The other fatal bombing occurred in the centre of Baghdad, killing one soldier from the 1st Armoured Division and wounding another, the military said.

The latest deaths bring to 540 the number of US service members who have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March.

Most have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.

In the ambush Saturday, gunmen in a white car opened fire on a taxi carrying Americans from a religious group from the site of the ancient city of Babylon to Baghdad.

A number of Christian humanitarian organisations are working in Iraq.

Attacks against the occupation force have continued unabated despite the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13 and the arrest of numerous figures whom the US military has identified as key figures behind the insurgency.