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."