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Iraq amends charter before vote, bomber kills 30

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 17:58 CDT

By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament amended its draft constitution on Wednesday in a final bid to stem bitter sectarian feuding three days before a referendum on the text.

But as a suicide bomber killed 30 at an army base in the north, some minority Sunni leaders rebuffed the U.S.-brokered compromise offer and rejected a charter they say favors Kurds and Shi'ites and may break Iraq up into regions at war over oil.

One major Sunni group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, did agree to back a "Yes" vote on Saturday, however, in return for a promise of a review of the constitution by a new parliament next year and some minor amendments now -- including a reassurance former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party would not be persecuted.

"I hope this is the beginning of a new kind of cooperation among all Iraqis," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

"The only book that cannot be changed is the Koran."

A further important endorsement came from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual guide to much of Iraq's 60-percent Shi'ite Muslim majority. Seen as a moderating force, aides to the reclusive cleric had previously indicated his concern that the constitutional debate had been deeply divisive.

After parliament's gesture, an aide said: "Sayyed Sistani has called on Iraqis to vote 'Yes'." The news was relayed as a newsflash on Iraq's government-run television channel.

Islamic Party officials joined other leaders as the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-dominated National Assembly formally adopted the changes without a vote at an evening ceremony complete with music, patriotic speeches and children bearing flowers.

The symbolism of national unity in a country riven by ethnic and sectarian bloodshed was bought with a fairly lengthy list of concessions Sunnis have sought in months of negotiations on the constitution. U.S. and U.N. officials have pushed the majority Shi'ites and their Kurdish allies to do more to bridge the gap.

Wording was added to emphasize the "unity" of Iraq and the status of Arabic as an official language in Kurdistan.

Parliament also endorsed a plan to set up a committee in the new assembly, in which Sunni parties that boycotted the present legislature should be fully represented, to review the constitution and propose a block of reforms within four months.

That modified constitution would then face a new referendum.

EFFECTS UNCLEAR

The strength of the Islamic Party's popular support and hence the effect of its volte face on the referendum is unclear.

In any case, with Sunni leaders torn between a boycott and urging a "No" vote, there had seemed little chance of the constitution failing, even under a veto clause by which a two- thirds "No" vote in three of 18 provinces would block it.

As great a fear, however, particularly in Washington, has been that pushing through the new charter by majority vote in the teeth of fierce opposition would mean the constitution raising rather than lowering the risk of greater violence.

Bringing some Sunni leaders on board may address that.

It is unclear, however, to what extent Sunnis can expect to see their fundamental objections to the federal nature of the new state addressed in negotiations in a new parliament which will be elected on December 15, assuming the constitution passes.

"We agreed Iraqis should say 'Yes'," Islamic Party general secretary Tareq al-Hashimi told a news conference, saying his members aimed to negotiate amendments after December's election.

One Islamist militant group declared him an "apostate."

A blast damaged a party office in the Sunni city of Falluja; "The people of Falluja will vote against the constitution," local official Qasem al-Jumaili told Arabiya television.

And other Sunni politicians dismissed the agreement.

"This is a ploy to persuade people not to vote 'No' to the ethnic and sectarian racist constitution," the Iraqi National Dialogue said in a statement of behalf of 19 Sunni groups.

SUICIDE BOMBING

Armed militants, some allied to international Islamists like al Qaeda, others Iraqi nationalists and Saddam loyalists, have vowed to wreck the U.S.-backed political system.

A suicide bomber walked among a crowd of army recruits at a base at Tal Afar in the north and blew himself up, police said, killing 30 people and wounding 35. The Iraqi government's new security forces are a main target for the insurgents.

It was the second al Qaeda attack in as many days in a town where U.S. and Iraqi forces said they had flushed out guerrillas in a major offensive last month. At least 24 died on Tuesday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and his team "played a mediating and facilitating role" in the negotiations on the constitution.

Washington is keen to prevent a civil war and keep Iraqis to a timetable for electing a fully empowered parliament in December that it hopes can enable U.S. troops to come home.

A White House spokesman greeted a "positive step" and said it would encourage more Iraqis to participate in politics.

President George W. Bush, criticized at home over the costs of the Iraq war as the death toll among U.S. troops approaches 2,000, is clearly keen to show progress toward stability.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Omar al-Ibadi, Hiba Moussa, Andrew Quinn, Mariam Karouny, Luke Baker and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad and Nabil Nourredeen in Mosul)

Source: REUTERS

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