Iraqi Leaders Again Put Off Meeting on New Constitution
08/25/2005
By DEXTER FILKINS and KIRK SEMPLE
NY Times
Published: August 25, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 25 - The National Assembly today called off a meeting that was scheduled to decide on the draft constitution, the Speaker’s office said, and no new date for the meeting was immediately announced.
A vote on the document was originally deferred Monday by the Speaker, Hajim al-Hassani, who said three days of talks would be held to try to win over Sunni Arab negotiators.
It appears, however, that no agreement has been reached so far with the Sunnis on the question of federalism, which would essentially set up powerful local regions instead of a strong central government.
The question facing the Iraqi leaders and the Americans who are advising them is whether to move on without the Sunnis and just vote to approve the charter, on which the Kurds and Shiites have already agreed. But the danger is that such a move could lead to a Sunni walkout, and a possible increase in the Sunni-led insurgency, so it appears that they have decided to take more time to try to get the Sunnis on board.
An optimistic tone was struck by President Jalal Talabani, however, soon after the delay was announced.
“Efforts are still continuing to reach consensus in the coming hours,” he said at a joint news conference with a Sunni leader, and he stressed that the Sunnis should get a bigger role in drafting the constitution.
The announcement that Parliament would miss the second extended deadline places the current government on uncertain legal authority. Under the rules that were agreed to last year the National Assembly is obliged to dissolve itself and hold new elections if it is unable to reach agreement on the interim constitution.
Before the Assembly called off its meeting, the rebellious Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers today to end clashes with Shiite rivals, echoing an earlier call for calm by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
“I call upon all believers to spare the blood of the Muslims and to return to their homes,” Mr. Sadr told reporters at his home in the holy city of Najaf.
Unity was needed in this “critical and difficult period” for Iraq, Mr. Sadr said, so that talks on a new constitution can proceed.
He added, “I extend my hand to everyone, and I am thankful for the statement of Mr. Jaafari. I urge the believers not to attack innocent civilians. We are passing through a critical period and a political process.”
In violence today, seven members of one family were killed by insurgents in Baghdad, and a convoy of guards and escorts used by President Talabani was attacked, killing two and wounding six.
Fighting erupted in Najaf on Wednesday when a crowd gathered to protest the reopening of Mr. Sadr’s offices opposite the Imam Ali Shrine, the most sacred Shiite religious shrine in Iraq. Government authorities closed the offices last August after the American military decimated his militia during a siege of the shrine that left hundreds of Iraqis dead and much of the city’s old district destroyed.
The clashes between followers of Mr. Sadr and his opponents killed at least four people and wounded at least 20, officials said.
The fighting spurred members of Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, to storm three offices in Baghdad of the Badr Organization, a militia linked to a competing Shiite organization called the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an official at the Interior Ministry said today.
Badr fighters also attacked one Baghdad office belonging to the party of Mr. Jaafari, the official added. Government officials said incorrectly late Wednesday night that the Sadr loyalists had attacked several offices of Mr. Jaafari’s party, Dawa.
Clashes also broke out overnight in Basra in the south between Sadr fighters and Badr militiamen. Mr. Sadr’s militia has been engaged in an intense and sometimes violent rivalry with the Supreme Council and Dawa.
Seeking to quell the Shiite violence less than a day before legislators are scheduled to vote on a draft constitution, Mr. Jaafari appeared on state-run television at 12:15 a.m. today to appeal for calm.
“Peace must reign,” he said, heavy bags of fatigue under his eyes. “This language of violence cannot be permitted in the new Iraq.” He added: “The gun and the language of the gun are finished.”
The clashes prompted a call for National Assembly members loyal to Mr. Sadr to boycott their legislative duties - he enjoys the support of a large minority of Shiite legislators - but Mr. Sadr’s words today would seem to put a question mark over that threat.
Mr. Sadr led two bloody uprisings against American military forces last year and was accused of murdering a rival Shiite cleric the year before. But though the Americans extinguished both uprisings and drove Mr. Sadr underground, he was never disarmed.
After quelling the second rebellion, last August, American and Iraqi authorities, with the cooperation of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, pressed Mr. Sadr to join the political mainstream, dominated by Dawa and the Supreme Council. In recent months Mr. Sadr, who draws much of his support from poor Shiites in Baghdad and southern Iraq, indicated that he planned to forgo violence and enter the political arena to help relieve sectarian tensions.
In violence today, armed insurgents locked a family of seven in a single room in Khadra, western Baghdad, placed explosives throughout the house, and then exploded them. Two women and five men were killed in the blasts, an Interior Ministry official said.
Two roadside bombs blew up as an armed convoy used by President Talabani was traveling south of Kirkuk to Baghdad, the local police said. Insurgents then opened fire, killing two bodyguards and wounding six, Brig. Sarhad Qadir of the Kirkuk police said. Mr. Talabani was in Baghdad at the time of the attack.
In Baghdad on Wednesday, fierce gun battles erupted between about 40 insurgents and the police in the streets of two residential neighborhoods in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people, most of them civilians, and wounding at least 57, an official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
The firefights began about 3:30 p.m. when a suicide car bomber exploded next to the convoy of a police commander in Jamiya, killing two police officers and wounding two, the ministry official reported. The American military command in Baghdad said two other suicide car bombs exploded in the same area but provided no information on casualties.
Following the blasts, the insurgents, moving in civilian cars and on foot in what appeared to be a coordinated offensive, attacked police patrols with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the ministry official and a witness.
In nearby Ghazaliya, insurgents attacked the convoy of Iraq’s deputy justice minister, killing four of his bodyguards and wounding five, officials said. Both are predominantly Sunni neighborhoods believed to be insurgent strongholds.
Mr. Sadr’s spokesman in Najaf, Salah al-Obeidi, said Wednesday night that the protesters had provoked the fight by trying to enter Mr. Sadr’s offices. He said they were repelled by Mahdi militiamen.
Mr. Sadr accused the police of abandoning the area when the riot began and demanded a government investigation into the clash, Mr. Obeidi said.
Within hours of the Najaf clash, Mahdi Army members invaded three Baghdad offices of the Supreme Council, an Interior Ministry official said.
In Basra, Mahdi Army members clashed with Badr fighters loyal to the Supreme Council. The police reported that Mahdi militiamen, firing mortars and assault rifles, attacked Supreme Council offices in at least four neighborhoods and a radio station belonging to the party.
Mr. Sadr, a cleric who is thought to be in his 30’s, has vehemently opposed the American military in Iraq, and has used this stance to set himself apart from the other parties. Late last month, Mr. Sadr’s organization announced that it had collected one million Iraqi signatures during a three-week petition drive demanding that foreign troops leave the country.
Mr. Sadr has also been among the staunchest Shiite opponents of autonomy in the south and, according to Reuters, some of his supporters joined Sunni demonstrators in a march on Wednesday in support of “no” votes in a referendum on the new constitution.
In his televised address, Mr. Jaafari urged all Shiite groups to remember the repression they suffered under Saddam Hussein and promised to investigate the cause of the violence.