KurdistanObserver.com

Sunni Official: We Requested A Categorical Omission Of The Term Federalism From The Constitution

Sunnis Urge Voters to Reject Constitution

AP and AFP

BAGHDAD, Iraq Aug 27, 2005- Iraq's head of parliament announced Saturday that Shiites and Kurds had agreed to Sunni Arab proposals for the new constitution and were awaiting a response. But Sunni negotiators said the changes fall short of their demands and urged voters to reject the draft in the Oct. 15 referendum.

Speaker Hajim al-Hassani, himself a Sunni, said the amended text, dealing with issues of federalism and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, would be submitted Sunday to parliament. The legislature, overwhelmingly Shiite and Kurdish, may vote on it or simply refer it to the voters.

The Sunnis were sticking by their demand that the word "federalism" be removed from the constitution amid threats that the document would go to parliament on Sunday heedless of whether they agreed to it or not.

"We requested a categorical omission of the term federalism from the constitution, and leaving it for the next elected parliament to look into the matter," Sunni negotiator Sheikh Khalaf Olayan, told AFP.

A Kurdish negotiator also said earlier Saturday the concessions offered to the Sunnis on Friday were final and they had to respond before the parliament holds a special session on Sunday to approve the draft.

"From the Shiites and the Kurds the draft is now final and we await the response of the Sunnis," Mahmud Othman told AFP.

"We tell our people that we have fulfilled the duty that you asked us to do," al-Mutlaq told reporters Saturday. "We have sincerely done the job and now the matters are up to you. We want those who did not wake up until now to wake up. We want you to express your point of view but without violence" in the Oct. 15 referendum.

Written versions of the Shiite-Kurdish concessions were not released.

But Al-Hassani said the concessions, which were presented to the Sunnis on Friday, involved delaying details how to implement federalism or the establishment of self-ruled regions  until a new parliament is elected in December presumably with more Sunni members than the current one.

On the issue of purging former Baath Party members, many of them Sunnis, al-Hassani said "not every person who joined the Baath Party is a criminal. There are hundreds of thousands of people who joined the Baath Party for a reason or another and they come from all regions."

The vast gulf among Iraq's communities made the task of drawing up a document acceptable to all difficult. In a bid for consensus, President Bush telephoned a top Shiite leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, and asked him to make compromises with the Sunnis.

"A parliamentary agreement has been reached between the Kurdish coalition and the (Shiite) alliance on accepting the suggestions of the forces that did not take part in the elections (Sunnis) and it will be announced in parliament tomorrow," al-Hassani said.