KurdistanObserver.com

Sunnis Push Campaign Against Constitution, Demand More Concessions From Kurds, Shias

Iraqi govt, U.S. push Sunnis for support on charter

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Oct 10,m 2005-  Iraq's Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders held talks with Sunni Arabs in Baghdad on Monday to try to broker a last-minute deal to bring the Sunni minority on board and support this week's referendum on a constitution.

The U.S. ambassador met at least one hardline Sunni leader.

The talks were a last-ditch attempt before Saturday's vote to win unified support for a document that is supposed to unite the country, but which analysts fear could end up further dividing it.

Sunni and Shi'ite politicians confirmed they were involved in the discussions, and others close to the talks said the Kurds and the Americans, led by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, were also directly involved in the late push for Sunni support.

The Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government fears that if the Sunnis cannot be brought on board with the constitution, which will be voted on in a referendum on Saturday, they will either defeat it, or their dissent will fuel the Sunni insurgency.

"There are intense talks going on. They are trying very hard to see if they can make last-minute changes for the Sunni Arabs," said Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish legislator who took part in drafting the constitution.

"The United States and the Iraqi leaders, everyone is trying as hard as they can ... but I don't know whether the Sunni Arab demands can be met," he said.

As well as Khalilzad, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish regional president, were involved in discussions, as well as the Sunni speaker of parliament Hajem al-Hassani.

The United Nations and the Arab League, which has sent representatives to Baghdad to monitor the referendum, were backing the round of talks in the hope of securing a deal.

CLAUSES

Othman and Sunnis involved in the talks said discussions were focussed on six or seven points, including clauses in the constitution that would allow Iraq's Shi'ite majority to create a federal state in the south, and a clause on de-Baathification -- a committee which would seek to remove all members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party from political office.

"The main demands are the same ones that the Sunnis have been talking about all along," Othman said.

He said he felt one or two of the issues might be resolved -- including making Arabic one of the official languages in Kurdistan alongside Kurdish and putting the word "Arabic" ahead of "Islamic" in the constitution's definition of Iraq -- but other points were pretty intractable.

"They don't like the idea of Iraq being described as federal, they prefer united, but I don't think they are going to get that," Othman said.

The Sunni groups taking part include the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni Gathering, and the Iraqi National Dialogue. The Muslim Clerics' Association, a religious group that has often taken a harder line, was not involved.

Participations said talks would continue into Tuesday, with the expectation that there would be a news conference on Tuesday afternoon to announce any deal following intense rounds of bilateral talks among the parties.

U.S. officials would not confirm that Khalilzad was involved, but several delegates said he was, and Saleh al- Mutlak, the spokesman of Iraqi National Dialogue, said he had met the ambassador on Monday.

However, Mutlak told Reuters: "They shouldn't think that they are going to change the attitude of the Sunnis."

Othman said major difficulty would be getting guarantees out of the Sunni groups, which have been divided in recent days over whether they should even participate in the referendum.

"If concessions are made to the Sunnis to make additions to the constitution, then the other parties want a guarantee from the Sunnis that they will vote back the constitution at the referendum," Othman said. "But there are no guarantees."

Sunnis are widely expected either to boycott Saturday's referendum, or vote "No". If two thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces vote "No", then the referendum will fail.

While Sunnis are a majority in at least three provinces, they are not expected to be able to raise enough votes to defeat the charter. Failure, though, may end up fuelling the insurgency raging across the country for more than two years.