Sunni demonstrators denounce new Iraqi charter

Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on today to denounce Iraq’s new constitution – a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs.

Sunni leaders have urged their community to defeat the charter in a nationwide referendum on October 15, saying it had been pushed through the drafting committee by the dominant Shiite Arab and Kurdish alliance.

The absence of Sunni endorsement, after more than two months of intensive negotiations, raised fears of more violence and set the stage for a bitter political fight ahead of the referendum.

A political battle threatened to sharpen communal divisions at a time when relations among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds appear to be worsening.

In Tikrit, at least 2,000 protesters assembled near the office of the Association of Muslims Scholars – a hardline Sunni clerical group opposed to the US occupation – carrying Iraqi flags and portraits of the former dictator.

“We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam,” chanted the demonstrators.

They carried pictures of Shiite clerics Muqtada Al-Sadir and Jawad Al-Khalisi who have joined the Sunnis in opposing the constitutional draft.

Sheik Yahya Ibrahim Al-Batawi, an organiser of the protest, read a statement denouncing the “Jewish constitution,” saying its goal was to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Sunni negotiators delivered their rejection in a joint statement yesterday shortly after the draft was submitted to parliament.

They branded the final version as “illegitimate” and asked the Arab League and the United Nations to intervene.

“I think if this constitution passes as it is, it will worsen everything in the country,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiator.

The depth of disillusionment over the charter in the Sunni establishment extended beyond the 15 negotiators, who were appointed to the constitutional committee in June under US pressure.

The country’s Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking the completion of the document.

When President Jalal Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.

Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni, said he thought the final document contained “too much religion” and too little protection of women’s’ rights.

Despite last-minute concessions from the majority Shiites and Kurds, the Sunnis said the document threatened the unity of Iraq and its place in the Arab world.

The largest Sunni political grouping, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said it would continue trying to amend the charter before it is presented to voters in October.

Sunnis fear federalism would lead to the breakup of the country into a Kurdish north and Shiite south, deprive Sunnis of Iraq’s vast oil wealth concentrated at the opposite ends of the country, and open the door to Iranian influence in the Shiite south.

Sunnis also wanted no reference to Saddam’s party, fearing that would lead to widespread purges of Sunnis from government jobs.

Although Sunnis account for only 20% of Iraq’s estimated 27 million people, they still can derail the constitution in the referendum due to a concession made to the Kurds in the 2004 interim constitution.

If two-thirds of voters in any three provinces reject the charter, the constitution will be defeated. Sunnis have the majority in at least four provinces.

Defeat of the constitution would force new elections for a parliament that would begin the drafting process from scratch. If the constitution is approved, elections for a fully constitutional parliament will be in December.

In other developments today unidentified gunmen shot and killed Brig. Gen. Numan Salman Faris, director of the district rapid response force in Baghdad’s Azamiyah district.

And the The Iraqi Islamic Party accused the government’s Shiite-led security forces of being behind the recent killing of 36 Sunnis.