- BAGHDAD -- A final bid by
Shiite negotiators for a compromise to end the impasse with Sunni Arabs
over Iraq's draft constitution failed late Friday, and it was becoming
clear that the talks are hopelessly deadlocked.
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- Government spokesman Laith Kubba told Al-Arabiya television
that negotiations had reached a standstill. "This is the end of the
road," he said....
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- A leading Sunni negotiator called the Shiites' latest
offer unacceptable.
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- "There is no compromise--they are only playing with
words," Saleh Mutlaq said. "They are very far from what we want."
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- Leaders with Iraq's Shiite-Kurdish alliance have not
been able to reach a consensus with their Sunni Arab counterparts over
key sticking points in the country's draft constitution, four days after
the negotiators were legally bound to have the document finished.
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- Shiite and Kurdish negotiators have drafted a constitution
that decentralizes government power and creates autonomous regions in the
Kurdish north and southern Shiite provinces, both oil-rich regions. Fearing
a future in which they are cut off from Iraq's oil wealth, Sunni Arabs
have fought vehemently against the inclusion of that provision.
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- Sunni Arabs, an Iraqi minority that once ruled the country
under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, also oppose language in the draft
that would bar Baathists from public office and government jobs....
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- The compromise put on the table Friday would set aside
debate over implementation of federalism and a timeline for the purging
of Baathists from government until December, when the country elects a
new parliament, Shiite negotiators said.
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- "This is the final compromise we offer, and we hope
all political sides agree positively," said Shiite negotiator Abbas
al-Bayati.
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- Mutlaq said the offer did not go far enough and doubted
that a consensus with the Shiite-Kurdish alliance is possible at this stage.
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- "With the way they are working, I don't think we
are going to reach any agreement," Mutlaq said.
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- Though wrangling has continued on certain provisions
of the constitution, Shiite and Kurd leaders have said they believe the
draft they have in hand can pass legal muster because it was submitted
to Iraq's parliament Monday, just minutes before the expiration of a deadline
that would have forced the dissolution of parliament.
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- Sunni leaders say the draft was incomplete at the time
and therefore legally invalid. They have threatened to take their claims
to court.
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- Since Monday, negotiators have set self-imposed deadlines
for Thursday and again for Friday to reach an accord on federalism and
other contested provisions. Both deadlines passed without any substantive
progress.
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- Voters will decide in a national referendum Oct. 15 whether
to approve the constitution. Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish parties have all
started voter-registration efforts, and analysts say it now appears that
the fate of the constitution will rest in the hands of Iraqi electorate.
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- If voters reject the constitution, parliament will be
dissolved, a new legislature will be elected and the constitution drafting
process will start from scratch.
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- Sunni leaders have begun their push to persuade voters
to reject the constitution. On Friday in the largely Sunni city of Baqouba,
leaders organized a rally of about 5,000 people demonstrating against the
proposed constitution. Some in the crowd held up pictures of Hussein.
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- Another opponent of the constitution, maverick Shiite
cleric Moqtada Sadr, organized rallies across Iraq on Friday, massing a
reported 100,000 demonstrators. Protesters called for the end of U.S. involvement
in Iraq and for better living conditions.
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- http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-05082700
48aug27,1,868017.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
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