IRAQ: Iraq's constitution was formally presented to parliament yesterday in spite of its rejection by Sunnis on the drafting committee.
The text was read out to the assembly which adjourned without voting on the text. The 17 Sunni members of the committee and the Sunni Arab speaker of the assembly, Hajem Hassani, were absent from the session.
President Bush heaped praise on the draft constitution but acknowledged Sunni opposition and said an upcoming referendum could spark a new wave of violence.
Deputy Speaker Hussein Shahri-stani, a Shia, said Mr Hassani, who helped steer the text through various versions, agreed with the entire draft but had "other appointments".
However, his absence was seen as a protest against the way the process of drawing up the constitution was handled by the Shia-Kurdish alliance which dominates the political scene. An authoritative source said that even vice-president Ghazi Yawar, who heads a small Sunni party, has shifted from backing to opposing the text.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, declared the document complete. "The constitution is left to our people to approve or reject it. I hope that our people will accept it despite some flaws."
He said all sides had reservations about the charter and rejection in the referendum on October 15th would not derail the political process. "This is part of democracy. If the people do not approve it, we will draft another constitution."
Some analysts were less sanguine and said Kurds and Shias had thrown down a gauntlet to Sunnis, a restive minority driving the insurgency, risking greater bloodshed as well as the legitimacy of a document which is supposed to unite the country.
Although they represent 20-25 per cent of the populace, Sunnis, who have two voting and 15 non-voting members on the 71 member committee, were marginalised during the process of writing the constitution and their concerns played down or ignored.
Early Saturday, in a last ditch effort to produce a document which could be accepted by all sides, the Shias made minor revisions in several provisions.
But, arguing that the drafting process has been dominated by Shia and Kurdish figures who lived abroad until the US occupied the country, Sunni committee members dismissed the changes and submitted a list of 13 demands which began with a call for the committee to be given more time to overcome all differences.
The Sunnis also rejected the institutionalisation of sectarianism, the concentration of power in the hands of only one group, and a provision calling for the eradication of the former ruling Ba'ath Party. While agreeing to special status for the Kurds, the Sunnis demanded delay in the the implementation of federalism and the creation of autonomous provinces.
The Sunnis are alarmed by the proposal put forward by Abdel Aziz Hakim, the leader of the largest Shia movement, the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, that nine Shia majority provinces in the south, half the total, should form a super-Shia region bordering Iran and control its own oil resources.
Saleh Mutlaq, a Sunni member of the drafting committee, said opponents of the draft document would meet to decide how to proceed. It is expected that Sunni religious and secular organisations, former secular Shia premier Ayad Allawi's party, women's groups, Christians, Turkomen and followers of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr will mount a co-ordinated campaign to defeat the constitution in the referendum which must be held by October 15th.
They can do so by securing a two-thirds vote in three of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Sunnis form a majority in at least three but will need the backing of other groups to achieve a two-thirds No vote. Sadr enjoys popular support amongst the two million Shias dwelling in the slums of Baghdad.
Sunnis who boycotted last January's parliamentary election are being urged to register to vote in the referendum and in the parliamentary poll which will follow, whether the constitution is passed or not.
If the document fails to win acceptance, as seems likely, a new parliament will be chosen, a new government formed, and the the process of drafting the constitution will begin again.
Sunnis argue they could have greater representation in a new parliament.
The government is set to print millions of copies of the text for distribution to the populace and is expected to launch a massive public relations campaign on television and in the press to convince Iraqis to vote in favour.
However, persuading the country's politically aware, but largely uneducated, voters will be the task of political parties, associations and religious and tribal personalities. Shia clerics, in particular, will play a major role in bringing out the vote.
Insurgents, who seek to drive the US from Iraq, are expected to step up violent attacks on US forces and Iraqi government figures and installations ahead of the referendum with the aim of finishing off the political pro- cess.
President Bush acknowledged that some Sunnis have expressed reservations about various provisions of the constitution and he urged all Iraqis to "discuss and debate" the draft constitution based on its merits.
"This course is going to be difficult," Mr Bush said. "We can expect . . . atrocities to increase in the coming months because the enemy knows that its greatest defeat lies in the expression of free people in freely enacted laws and at the ballot box." With almost 1,900 US troops killed in Iraq and anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan camped out near his ranch, Mr Bush has seen his job approval ratings plummet to the lowest levels of his presidency.
An estimated 25,000 civilians were killed in just the first two years after the war began, according to Iraq Body Count, a US-British non-profit group.
"It's in our interest to stand with the Iraqi people. It's in our interest to lay the foundation of peace," Mr Bush said in his brief statement at his ranch in Texas. He said the draft constitution "contains far-reaching protections for fundamental human freedoms".
Additional reports by Guardian service and Reuters
