Share this story!            

Islam to decide Iraq constitution

* Sunni Arabs agree to work with constitutional committee

BAGHDAD: Sunni Arabs on Tuesday ended their boycott of a panel drafting Iraq’s constitution as a Baghdad newspaper published an early draft of the charter suggesting Islam will play a key role in the country’s basic law.

Sunni Arabs said they could return to work on the constitution as early as Tuesday after ending a boycott called in protest at the killing of two of their colleagues last week.

Iraqi government leaders Monday agreed to several of their demands - including allowing them to monitor a judicial investigation into the murders - in an effort to get them back on board ahead of an August 1 deadline for the committee to hand over the draft to parliament.

The boycott had threatened to derail the constitutional talks and undermine their credibility with Iraq’s Sunni minority which accounts for about one-fifth of the 27-million population. The community, dominant under Saddam Hussein’s regime and all previous Iraqi governments, is also under-represented in parliament as many of them boycotted the January elections.

The government mouthpiece, Al-Sabah, published what it described as an early draft of the proposed constitution which specifies that: “Islam is the official religion of the State” and “the main source of legislation”.

“No law that contradicts the universally agreed tenets of Islam may be enacted,” specifies the draft text, which is still under discussion.

The draft’s article 11 asserts that “fundamentalist” and “terrorist” ideology will be banned, along with Saddam’s Baath party.

The Iraqi parliament is due to vote on a draft constitution by August 15, before it is put to a national referendum in October.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka and several of his ministers visited Baghdad Tuesday for talks with Iraqi premier Ibrahim Jaafari.

Poland has the third largest military contingent in the US-led coalition in Iraq, with 1,400 troops and commands a multinational force of around 4,000.

Belka, whose visit comes a day after that of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, said his country was determined to keep its military contingent in Iraq. But Polish troops might focus on training missions in the future, once stability returns in the war-torn country, he suggested. “The characterisation of the military may change from the present stabilisation mission to a training mission,” he said.

Belka also discussed weapon sales to Iraq against a background of recent trouble involving the sale of helicopters. afp

Home | Foreign

Share this story!