Iraq's Sunni Arabs seek UN intervention

Sunni Arab negotiators in a joint statement today rejected the Iraqi draft constitution and asked the United Nations and Arab League to intervene.

The declaration was the first joint statement by the 15-member Sunni panel following the announcement by the Shiite-led government that the charter was complete and ready to go to the voters in a referendum October 15.

Several individual members of the Sunni panel had said earlier that they rejected the document over issues including federalism, Iraq’s identity and references to Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated Baath party.

“We declare that we don’t agree and we reject the articles that were mentioned in the draft and we did not reach consensus on them in what makes the draft illegitimate,” according the statement read by Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi.

“We call upon the Arab League, the United Nations, and international organisations to intervene so that this document is not passed and so that the clear defect in it is corrected,” he said.

Still they promised to be a “vital part of the political process” by taking an active part in the general elections in December. Sunni negotiator Saleh al-Mutlaq said the current parliament that drafted the charter was not representative and therefore not qualified to draft a constitution.

That was largely because the Sunni Arabs boycotted the January 30 election, enabling Shiites and Kurds to take the vast majority of the 275 National Assembly seats.

Al-Mutlaq said Sunni Arabs would turn out for the December national elections and called on all Iraqis “from Basra to Mosul” to register and vote.