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Maggie
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- Friday, July 29 2005, 1:03:52 (CEST) from 69.225.40.14 - adsl-69-225-40-14.dsl.skt2ca.pacbell.net  Network -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
Drafters invite Iraqi leaders to summit on constitution Meeting will seek to break through deadlocked issues Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post Wednesday, July 27, 2005 A draft of the constitution published Tuesday in a government-backed newspaper outlines an explicitly Islamic state with a strong Shiite identity and less progressive laws for women than existed under President Saddam Hussein. It also plans to give sweeping powers and potentially considerable oil revenues to newly created federal regions to spend as they see fit. Those provisions, critics say, could deepen the country's ethnic and sectarian divides. "Islam is the official religion of the state and is the main source of legislation," reads the draft published in Al-Sabah. "No law that contradicts its rules can be promulgated." Some of the rights outlined in the draft are common to many democracies, such as the right to privacy, plus freedom of religion, speech and freedom from discrimination. According to this draft, the government would be a parliamentary democracy with a weak executive branch. There would be a single legislative body, elected every four years, along with an independent judiciary. Sunni Arab delegates returned to the constitution-writing meetings Tuesday after a weeklong boycott. But it remained clear that the major divisive issue was federalism -- virtual autonomy for Kurds in the north, Shiites in the south and Sunnis in the central region, with limited powers for the central government. Kurds are pushing for federalism as the only acceptable system for their already autonomous north. Some in the Shiite majority also want the same rights for the heavily Shiite south. Sunnis, who governed until the 2003 U.S. invasion that ousted Hussein, charge that such a system would break up the country. Sunni delegates said Tuesday they flatly rejected a southern Shiite federal region under any circumstance. They proposed putting off the federal question until some months after the constitution was approved, said Salih Mutlaq, a leading Sunni on the committee. --------------------- |
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