Iraq’s constitution: bones of contention
BAGHDAD: Following are the main points of dispute in talks over Iraq’s permanent constitution, which a 71 -member panel is aiming to complete by an Aug. 15 deadline.
The main groups party to the debate are Shia Arabs, who form more than 60 per cent of Iraq’s population; minority Sunni Arabs, who lost their dominant position under Saddam Hussein after the US-led invasion of 2003; and ethnic Kurds — mostly Sunnis — who already enjoy autonomy in northern Iraq.
The United States is a key player in the wings, hoping the constitution will help end a Sunni insurgency, allow some US troops to go home and make Iraq a stable, democratic ally.
FEDERALISM — Kurds have been the most vocal in arguing for a strongly decentralised federal state that would safeguard their gains in three provinces in northern Iraq. Sunni Arabs, who see themselves as the historical glue for Iraqi unity, have resisted federalism as a ruse for eventual Kurdish independence.
Shia leaders have blown hot and cold on such decentralisation. Some now suggest that the Shia regions of the south should also form a “federated region”.
Iraq’s transitional administrative law (TAL), signed in March 2004, allows any three of the 18 provinces the right to form an autonomous region. There is argument over whether that provision should be changed to make forming regions harder.
ISLAM — Secularists, US officials and a host of liberal lobby groups, the most prominent of which have been women activists, are fighting to water down references to Islam in defining the new Iraq.
Shia clerics had originally argued for Iraq to be named an Islamic republic, like Iran, with Islamic law — presumably Shia for Shias and Sunni for Sunnis, though this was not spelled out — specified as the sole source of law.
A federated southern Iraq region might offer Shia clerics enamoured by the political system in neighbouring Iran, and facing considerable pressure to give ground on the issue of Iraq’s Islamic identity, an acceptable quid pro quo.
Secularists fear that if Islam is the sole source of law, as opposed to simply a source, parliament or local government could enact laws or regulations that deny women equal inheritance rights, restrict their rights in divorce or impose dress codes.
Women also want to ensure they have the right to pass on their Iraqi nationality to their children.
RESOURCES — Sunnis are keen for central government in Baghdad to have control over all or the majority of the country’s oil revenues.
Iraq’s huge oil reserves are located around Basra in the south and Kirkuk in the north — another spur for Kurds and Shias to favour federalism. Sunnis fear being left in the middle with a rump state big on Arab nationalist slogans, but bereft of resources.
ARABS — Sunni Arabs have pushed for Iraq to be defined as an Arab state that is part of the “Arab nation”, a loaded term linked to pan-Arab nationalism, including that espoused by the Baath party of Saddam Hussein. Shias, keen to establish their distance from non-Arab Iran, have been sympathetic, though perhaps not overly concerned. Non-Arab Kurds have fought for softer alternatives, such “Arab world” or “Arab surroundings”.
KIRKUK — Since Iraqi Kurdistan is already an autonomous region, the drafting committee is faced with deciding where the borders of its three provinces are and what proportion of their revenues can be retained for local use without passing through the central government in Baghdad.
The north oil city of Kirkuk, just outside present-day Kurdistan, is an emotive issue because the Kurds consider it their ancestral capital and resent the forced settlement of Arabs during Saddam Hussein’s rule. Arabs say it is an Arab city and Turkish-speaking ethnic Turkmen say it is by rights theirs.
The TAL specifies that issues involving Kirkuk cannot be settled until after a census in the area is held, property claims are resolved and a permanent Iraqi constitution is ratified. However, Kirkuk as a symbol of Iraq’s divisions is overhanging many of the discussions over the constitution.—Reuters