Iraq Governing Council OKs interim constitution

Iraq Governing Council OKs interim constitution

Agencies
Baghdad

Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council put aside differences on
Monday to forge an interim constitution, a key foundation in
Washington's plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis by June 30.

Agreement was finally reached at 4:20 a.m. (8:20 a.m. in
Jakarta) after heated talks. The 25-member Council missed a Feb.
28 deadline to strike a deal because of divisions over the role
of Islam, quotas for women in government and Kurdish demands for
autonomy. The document will be officially signed on Wednesday.

"This is a major achievement, only a day late, which I think
is terrific," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, adding
he was confident U.S. governor Paul Bremer would approve the
document. British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the deal as
a "significant foundation stone", his spokesman said.

Officials and participants in the talks said the law
recognized Islam as Iraq's official religion and said it would be
a source of legislation but not the primary source, as had been
demanded by many in Iraq's 60 percent Shiite majority.

A senior coalition official said the compromise "strikes the
right balance" between the Islamic identity of most Iraqis and
the need to enshrine freedom of religion and freedom of speech,
which are protected by a bill of rights in the document.

"The language on Islam and the state effectively says that
this won't compromise individual rights or democratic
principles," the official said.

The document says elections for a transitional assembly should
be held ideally by the end of 2004, or by Jan. 31, 2005 at the
latest. That assembly will then work on a constitution and plan
full elections by the end of 2005.

Washington's initial plan was for elections by the end of 2005
but Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
demanded polls be held sooner.

Sistani initially wanted the government which will take over
on July 1 to be elected, but softened his stance after the United
Nations said it was impossible to organize polls so fast.

With U.S. presidential elections nearing, President George W.
Bush's administration says it is determined to stick to plans to
hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.

But there are still no details of the government that will
take over when Washington hands over power. A senior coalition
official said talks would start "after a pause for breath".

Hamid al-Bayati of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, one of the main Shiite political groups, said
the document ensured "there can't be any law passed that is not
in keeping with Islam", and that it met Sistani's demands.

"This is what Ayatollah Sistani wanted to see in the interim
constitution, so yes, what has been agreed is OK, although not
everyone is fully and completely with what was in there," he
said. Officials said the most difficult issues were Islam,
federalism, and the role of the presidency.

The temporary constitution -- made up of about 60 articles --
will enshrine a bill of rights, freedom of speech, freedom of
religion and civilian control of the military.

"It is an incredibly comprehensive bill of rights," said an
official from the U.S.-led military coalition that ousted
dictator Saddam Hussein last April.

"This is a bill of rights for a society that has been tortured
and devastated for 35 years by a totalitarian system that we
believe shares the company of the Nazis, the Third Reich, and the
Stalinist regime."

While Kurds and Iraq's Christian community were happy with the
new law, an official from the Turkmen ethnic group, the country's
third largest, was not.

"We consider this law a failure not a success," said Saadeddin
Mohammad Arkaj, deputy of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (FIT) party.
"We refuse to be classed a minority because we are one of Iraq's
main ethnic components."