More Sunnis to Join Iraqi Charter Panel

BAGHDAD, Iraq – More Sunni Muslim Arabs will be appointed to join elected lawmakers in drafting Iraq’s new constitution, President Jalal Talabani said Thursday, a day after the Sunnis threatened to boycott the process.

Meanwhile, 19 security guards for a North Carolina-based company were detained for three days in a military jail by U.S. Marines following an alleged shooting spree May 28, and some of the contractors complained they were abused while in custody.

The Sunnis, who complained about their lack of representation, will be given up to 25 seats, Talabani said. His announcement seemed to meet demands made a day earlier by top Sunni leaders for 27 seats on the 55-member committee.

“We have decided to add about 20 to 25 members from Sunnis in the committee, which will draft the constitution with full rights like other members who were elected by the parliament,” Talabani said.

“This will be done very soon and we are discussing to finalize the making of this decision,” he added.

But a Sunni legislator on the committee said that although an agreement had been reached on Sunni Arabs joining an expanded and parallel committee, no deal had been struck on their number.

Adnan al-Janabi, one of two Sunni Arabs on the committee, told The Associated Press that Sunni groups have agreed to join the 55 legislators in an expanded body whose decisions would be made by consensus. The decisions would then be referred to the 55-member committee for endorsement before going to the 275-seat National Assembly.

Al-Janabi, who has led contacts with the Sunni Arabs about their representation, said there has been no agreement on the number of representatives to be involved in the process, but added that parliament, in a goodwill gesture, would issue a resolution “recognizing and supporting” the expanded committee.

The agreement on the Sunni Arabs joining an expanded body, rather than the constitutional committee, means that they have dropped demands for voting rights equal to those of the 55 legislators.

Several committee members say the number of the Sunni Arabs on the committee should be equal to that of the Kurds – 15 – since each of the two communities account for up to 20 percent of the population. They also believe that expanding the body with a large number of Sunni Arabs could delay the decision-making process when they have only two months to draft the document.

The Shiite-led government had offered 13 extra places for Sunni Arabs from outside the parliament to help the 55-member committee draw up the constitution. No voting rights were offered to the 13.

But on Wednesday, two of Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab organizations – the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Sunni Endowment – rejected the offer of 13, and instead called for 25 seats with the same voting rights as the 55 lawmakers.

New U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qadhi, said during an earlier news conference with Talabani that the constitution was Iraq’s “No. 1 priority.”

Sunni Arab support is crucial for Iraq’s Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated government, particularly to approve the constitution. The draft charter, which must be ready by mid-August, will collapse if three of Iraq’s four predominantly Sunni Arab provinces vote against it in a referendum to be held two months later.

If adopted in October, the constitution will provide the basis for a new general election by Dec. 15.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, visiting with a European Union delegation, expressed confidence the deadlines would be met.

The Marines said the 16 Americans and three Iraqis, employed by Zapata Engineering of Charlotte, N.C., sprayed small-arms fire at Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces from their cars in Fallujah on May 28. No one was hurt.

Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Marines reported seeing gunmen in several late-model trucks fire “near civilian cars” and on military positions.

“Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack,” the spokesman said.

U.S. forces said they detained the contractors without incident and held them for three days, but no charges were filed.

The American contractors are believed to have left Iraq, and a Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry is under way, the military said.

According to Zapata, its convoy – which was carrying supplies from Baghdad to Fallujah – was stopped when spike strips placed in the road flattened their tires.

Company president Manuel Zapata said the only shot fired by his workers was a warning blast after they noticed a vehicle following them.

Some of the workers alleged they were physically abused and humiliated while in military custody.

Mark Schopper, an attorney who said he represents two of the workers who were detained, told The Charlotte Observer they were stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and handled roughly by Marines.

“Marines put their knees on the backs of their necks and ripped off religious medallions,” Schopper said. “They asked for attorneys, they asked for Amnesty International, they asked for the American Red Cross. All three requests were denied.”

Lapan said in an e-mail exchange with the AP that military inquiry is looking into both the shooting incident as well as the contractors’ allegations against the Marines, who denied the allegations.

“We continue to investigate this matter, to include the contractors’ actions leading up to this incident, the actions of our Marines, as well as the contractors’ allegations of abuse. At this point, we have found nothing to substantiate those allegations,” Lapan said in the e-mail to the AP.

He told The Observer that the Americans “were segregated from the rest of the detainee population and, like all security detainees, were treated humanely and respectfully.”

Iraq’s rampant insecurity has spawned a thriving private industry comprising Iraqis and former military personnel from around the world to protect foreign contractors, journalists and senior government officials and diplomats.

Many Iraqis resent high-profile security details who speed along highways in sport utility vehicles brandishing automatic weapons.

It is unclear what caused the security contractors to open fire, but there have been reports previously of some over zealous guards firing weapons out of fear of being attacked. Iraqi insurgents target foreign security forces, along with American troops and Iraq police and soldiers, in their campaign against the U.S.-led occupation.

In the latest violence, insurgents ambushed a convoy carrying U.S. supplies near Khaldiyah, 75 miles west of Baghdad, police Sgt. Shakir Ibrahim said. Several trucks and SUVs were destroyed and there were an unspecified number of casualties.

The attack was the second against a convoy transporting goods for American forces this week west of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the United States is talking with Sunni Arab leaders with ties to militant groups to try to get them to lay down their arms, an American official said. Several groups are indicating a willingness to join the political process, but more radical militants can only be dealt with by military means, he said.

“In order to achieve stability and an end to the insurgency and stop Iraqis from being killed in large numbers, the insurgency has to be addressed,” the Baghdad-based official said Wednesday during a briefing on condition he not be identified.

Separately, U.S. officials confirmed last week’s arrest of Mullah Mahdi, Mosul cell leader of the feared Ansar al-Sunnah terror group, which has links to al-Qaida in Iraq. Iraqi and American forces also have captured numerous foreign fighters from Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

In a related development, two Mahdi aides were captured Wednesday in Mosul, said Asso Mamand, an official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.