World

Time Ticking For Iraq Constitution

August 15, 2005 / 10:15 AM EDT / CBS/AP

A Shiite legislator said Monday the draft constitution will be presented to parliament on time at 6 p.m. regardless of objections by Sunni Arab members of the committee drafting the document.

"I confirm that the constitution will be given at 6 p.m. today to the National Assembly," Hassan al-Sunnaid told state-run Iraqiya television. "After they receive it, it will be read and members will comment on it. Then it will be ready for the referendum after two months."

Al-Sunnaid is a member of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Dawa party. Another Dawa member, Khalid al-Attiyah, said earlier there was a "10 percent chance" parliament might try to amend the interim constitution and postpone the Monday deadline.

There was no confirmation from the leadership of the drafting committee. There was also no comment from Sunni Arab committee members, who have objected to a range of issues including federalism, the role of the Shiite clergy and power relationships between provinces and the central government.

A meeting with leaders from all the main parties, including Sunni Arabs, was planned later in the day, but Shiite leaders again broached the idea of extending the constitutional deadline.

"We hope that an agreement will be reached but if this does not happen we will ask for an extension until Sept. 1, or mid-September," al-Attiyah said, adding that there was a 10 percent chance that a delay would be necessary.

An extension would require approval of two-thirds of parliament and the president and his two deputies. U.S. officials have pressured Iraqis to stick to Monday's deadline.

In other developments:

Iraqi commandos were led to a grave containing 30 bodies in the Owerij industrial district in southern Baghdad after interrogating insurgents detained in a raid earlier in the day, Col. Selam al-Maamuri of the Interior Ministry said.

Violence also continued during Monday's negotiations. One Iraqi soldier was killed and another injured in an insurgent ambush in west Baghdad, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.

In Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen killed three people in separate shootings, including a municipal council member and his driver, police said. Four others were wounded.

In the nearby town of Buhriz, gunmen killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded three others at a checkpoint late Sunday, police said. In Khanaqin, near the Iranian border, a roadside bomb killed one civilian on Sunday, police said.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the body of a government food program worker was found, police said.

In the capital, a senior Iraqi Central Bank official, Haseeb Kadum, was kidnapped Sunday outside his home, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. The beheaded body of an unidentified woman also was found in the violent southern neighborhood of Dora, Mahmoud added.

Sunni Arabs pressed for the divisive issue of federalism to be put off until next year so the draft can be completed on time, warning they would not accept provisions for federated states.

Shiites and Kurds, the two other major groups in the country, are pushing for autonomous regions in the southern and northern parts of Iraq, but Sunnis fear the proposal could split Iraq.

American officials applied pressure to resolve differences on that and other issues before Monday's deadline.

"The Iraqis tell me that they can finish it and they will finish it tomorrow," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Sunday in a televised interview.

Khalilzad said that "a lot of American blood and American treasure has been spent here," a point that he had made "abundantly clear to my Iraqi interlocutors."

The U.S. military said Sunday that five soldiers had been killed in roadside bombings, and at least 11 Iraqis were killed in scattered violence across the country. A grave with 30 bodies was also found Sunday by Iraqi commandos in southern Baghdad.

Some politicians said the draft could be presented to the Shiite- and Kurdish-led parliament Monday over Sunni Arab objections. But that would further alienate that disaffected minority, undercutting the U.S. goal of using the political process to take the steam out of the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

"It looks like all the agreements are being made only by the Kurds and the Shiites without even asking our opinion," Sunni Arab official Saleh al-Mutlaq said Sunday. "I believe the draft is going to be presented tomorrow even if it is not finished, with or without our approval."

Al-Mutlaq said there also was no agreement on 17 other issues, including the distribution of oil wealth. Another Sunni official voiced objections over a Shiite-Kurdish deal to grant special status to the clerical hierarchy of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.

During a meeting Sunday with Kurdish leaders, Sunni Arab politicians requested that federalism be left out of the constitution until a new parliament is elected. Kurds have rejected such proposals in the past.

Sunni politician Kamal Hamdoun said other charter provisions that his group objected to were recognition of the Kurdish language, dual citizenship and the role of the Shiite religious leadership.

"If there are points that we do not agree on, we will not sign any draft," Hamdoun said, adding that he didn't think Shiites and Kurds would push through a charter "if they are serious about the unanimity with us."

Since Shiites and Kurds have agreed on most constitutional issues, Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said the drafting committee would present the draft to parliament Monday even if the Sunni Arabs objected.

Parliament could approve the draft by a simple majority, and the Shiites and Kurds together hold 221 of 275 seats. However, that risks a Sunni backlash that could scuttle the constitution when it is put before voters in an Oct. 15 referendum.

If two-thirds of the voters in at least three of the 18 provinces vote "no," the charter would be defeated and Sunnis form a majority in at least four provinces. Sunni clerics are urging followers to vote against any constitution that could lead to the breakup of the country.