BAGHDAD, 29 August 2005 — Iraqi officials finished the new constitution yesterday but failed to win the endorsement of Sunni Arab negotiators, a major setback for the Bush administration’s strategy to lure Sunnis away from the insurgency and hasten the day US troops can go home.
Absence of Sunni Arab endorsement, after more than two months of intensive negotiation, raises fears of more insurgent violence and sets the stage for a bitter political fight ahead of an Oct. 15 referendum where voters will decide whether to approve the document.
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. “We will work for the mobilization of the population to reject the draft” in the referendum, influential Sunni leader Adnan Al-Dulaimi told Al-Jazeera television.
Ibrahim Al-Shammari, spokesman of a leading insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, said on Al-Jazeera that the constitution “drafted under the supervision of the occupiers” would divide Iraq and benefit Israel.
Sunni negotiators delivered their rejection in a joint statement shortly after the draft was submitted to Parliament. They branded the final version as “illegitimate” and asked the Arab League, the United Nations and “international organizations” to intervene “so that this document is not passed.”
“I think if this constitution passes as it is, it will worsen everything in the country,” Sunni negotiator Saleh Al-Mutlaq said.
For the Sunnis, major deal-breaker issues included federalism, Iraq’s identity in the Arab world, and references in the draft to Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated Baath party.
Sunnis fear federalism would lead to the breakup of the country into a Kurdish north and Shiite south. They fear such a move would deprive Sunnis of Iraq’s vast oil wealth concentrated at opposite ends of the country and open the door to Iranian influence in the Shiite south.
Sunnis wanted no reference at all to Saddam’s party, fearing that would lead to widespread purges of Sunnis from government jobs and public life.
The text sticks to wording that says Iraq is “part of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation.”
In Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush expressed disappointment that the Sunnis did not sign on but pinned his hopes on the Oct. 15 referendum. He urged Iraqis to debate the constitution on its merits and sang the document’s praises, saying it “contains far-reaching protections for fundamental human freedoms including religion, assembly, conscience and expression.”
But the depth of disillusionment over the charter in the Sunni establishment extends 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 ceremony marking 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.
“We hope that this constitution will be accepted by all Iraqis and that it will be for everybody. We are optimistic... For sure there is no book that is perfect and cannot be amended, except the Holy Qur’an,” Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla leader who fought Saddam Hussein, said.
A top Sunni who did attend the ceremony, Parliament Speaker Hajim Al-Hassani, said he thought the final document contained “too much religion” and too few women’s rights and would be hard to sell it to the Sunnis.
Although Sunnis account for only 20 percent of Iraq’s estimated 27 million people, they still can derail the constitution in the referendum. 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.
