Shiites, Kurds Reach Agreement
The head of parliament announced Saturday that the Shiite and Kurdish factions had reached agreement on proposals of the Sunni Arabs and would forward an amended text to the National Assembly Sunday. But the Sunnis denounced the text and called on people to reject it in the referendum.
The announcement by parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani and the statements by the Sunnis signaled an end to the intense negotiations and their failure to produce a draft accepted by all factions.
That sets the stage for an intense battle over the next two months by forces supporting and opposing the draft in the runup to the Oct. 15 referendum. The announcement could also lead to an intensification of violence in the tortured land at a time when support for the Iraq war within the United States is dropping.
"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, a Sunni Arab, said.
It was clear that the Shiites and Kurds believe they have given the necessary concessions regardless of whether the Sunnis accepted them.
In other developments:
The move, the largest prisoner release to date, followed appeals by Sunni representatives to start releasing thousands of prisoners who have been languishing in the jail for months without being charged.
Earlier Friday, Iraq's Shiite-dominated constitution committee said it would submit an amended draft charter to parliament this weekend despite opposition from minority Sunni Arabs who rejected a proposed compromise, negotiators said Saturday.
The chairman of the committee, Sheik Humam Hammoudi, a Shiite, said "there has been an agreement on the differences including the federalism issue. This will give guarantees for the Sunnis."
But Sunni negotiators said they did not accept the revised document, and one of them, Saleh al-Mutlaq, called on Iraqis to reject the document in the Oct. 15 referendum, warning of a "terrifying and dark future awaiting Iraq."
CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan reports that Sunni leaders are saying that they're going to campaign amongst their followers to vote no and defeat the constitution. They do have the power to do that if they can get enough votes, but the problem is they may not be able to get to the polling stations, Logan reports.
Hammoudi said 5 million copies of the final version would be printed in Arabic and Kurdish — which the new charter designates as official languages —and distributed to the public along with their monthly food rations.
The development was a blow to President Bush's efforts to rally support for a deal. He telephoned a top Shiite leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, and urged the Shiites to make compromises with the Sunnis in the interest of national unity. A process designed to bring Iraq's disparate communities together appeared to be tearing them apart.
Despite more than two months of talks, the process bogged down because the various factions could not agree on fundamental issues involving the future of Iraq. These included the country's identity, whether Iraq would continue as a centralized state or a federation based on religion and ethnicity and whether former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, most of them Sunnis, would have a future in the new Iraq.
The issue of federalism is critical: Sunnis fear not only a giant Shiite state in the south but also future bids by the Kurds to expand their region into northern oil-producing areas, as they have demanded. That would leave the Sunnis cut off from Iraq's oil wealth in the north and south. More than a million Sunni Arabs live in areas dominated by Shiites.
Thousands demonstrated in support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in a half-dozen cities, and there were clashes with rival Shiites in the holy city of Karbala, part of ongoing friction that erupted among Shiites during the constitution crisis. Some pro-Sadr protesters raised the issue of the constitution but most focused on demands for improved services.
Al-Mutlaq, the Sunni negotiator, told Al-Jazeera television of the breakdown in the talks after Sunnis studied compromise proposals offered by the Shiites on federalism and purges of former Baath Party members. The Sunnis had asked that decisions on both issues be delayed until a new parliament is elected in December, but the Shiite offer was insufficient to satisfy Sunni demands.
"There is a terrifying and dark future awaiting Iraq," he said. "It is important to present services for the Iraqis now, as well as to maintain security, and it is not important to write a piece of paper that all Iraqis disagree on."
Asked about Shiite offers, he replied: "We are still far from what we need and what the people need."