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Leaders break deadlock over debate on dividing Iraq
AFP/POOL/File/Ali Abbas
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, seen here in Baghdad on 16 September 2006.By Paul Schemm
AFP
BAGHDAD
Petroleumworld.com 09 25 06Iraqi leaders on Sunday averted a political crisis by striking a compromise between warring Shiite and Sunni groups over the issue of breaking the war-torn country into autonomous regions.
The end of a three-week stalemate strikes a rare note of compromise and agreement in a country whose politics have taken on a sharply sectarian character and is wracked by internecine violence as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins.
Political party leaders agreed to hold a debate on federalism as urged by Shiites and also to review the constitution as demanded by Sunnis.
"The first reading of the draft law for the formation of regions will be on (Tuesday)," said deputy parliamentary speaker Khaled Attiya, adding this would be preceded Monday by the formation of a committee to review the constitution.
The violence, however, ground on and at least 19 people were killed across the country in insurgent attacks and explosions.
Sunnis originally rejected a Shiite draft law on dividing the country into regions, sometimes even threatening to boycott the assembly.
At the same time, they demanded that before anything, a committee had to be formed to study their long-held desire to amend the constitution.
The deal to allow both measures to move forward was reached in a closed door meeting involving the Shiite list, the Kurdish Alliance, the Iraqiya list as well as the Sunni parties.
"They have signed an agreement," confirmed powerful Shiite deputy Jalal al-Din Saghir, adding he was cautiously optimistic the deadlock was over. "I really pray for this, but you know politics."
The compromise ensures the constitutional committee will have a year to amend the constitution, while the federalism law will not be implemented for 18 months after it has been passed.
Earlier, the Shiite alliance attempted to ram through parliament its draft law that would allow it to fuse Iraq's Shiite southern provinces into a single, oil rich autonomous region.
The Sunni coalition, together with other lawmakers, opposed the move charging it would lead to the division of the country, a concern shared even by some Shiite parties.The ensuing deadlock, characterised by numerous delays and postponements of parliament's activities, paralysed the elected body even as Iraq sank deeper into ongoing violence.
On Sunday, a series of attacks killed 19 Iraqis a day after Sunnis, like most of the rest of the Muslim world, marked the start of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Iraq's majority Shiites begin fasting on Monday, an inadvertent sign of the divisions separating Iraq's people, as Sunni rebels said they had executed 10 Shiites from India and Pakistan.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sunna group said it had executed the men west of Baghdad, claiming they had been sent by the Iranian-linked Badr movement, a former militia.
Sunni insurgents started their promised campaign of attacks during the holy month with a blast in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City Saturday killing 31 people, mostly women and children lining up to buy kerosene.
The bloody attack forced Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to urge for peace.
"I call on Iraqis to take advantage of this sacred month to reinforce brotherly ties to reject division and anything that threatens the Iraqi social fabric," Maliki said.
"Either we live side by side in a spirit of brotherhood, not separated by ethnic or sectarian identifies, or Iraq becomes a battlefield for different groups to settle their scores," he added.
Despite a tough Baghdad security plan in place since June, the government has been largely unable to halt the violence.
"Before, people used to look forward to this month, but this year, with all the brutal violence, there is nothing special about Ramadan," said Abu Hassan, a middle-aged Sunni, at his electronics shop in the mostly Shiite middle-class district of Karrada.
The perception that matters have only worsened since the US-led invasion is not restricted to Iraqis, however, and according to two leading US newspapers, US intelligence agencies say the March 2003 invasion has spawned a new wave of Islamic terrorism.Completed in April, the report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," The New York Times quoted one of the officials as saying.
The findings contained in the National Intelligence Estimate appear to be in stark contradiction with recent claims by President George W. Bush and other top administration officials that victory in Iraq is the key to winning the global war on terror.
In fact, said the Washington Post, the radical groups that have sprung up since the invasion spread the message that the Iraq war is a Western attempt to conquer Islam by first occupying Iraq and establishing a permanent presence in the Middle East.
On Sunday, three car bombs went off in Baghdad claiming nine lives and wounding dozens. Elsewhere 10 people were killed and two corpses were found.
Two US marines were killed in the strife-torn town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, bringing to 2,700 the number of US military deaths in Iraq since the invasion.
The government also announced the leader of the hardline Sunni Brigades of the 1920 Revolution had been arrested by the Iraqi army west of Baghdad, without providing a name.
AFP 241556 GMT 09 06
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