Iraq Sunnis reject federal proposal

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Sunni members of the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution have rejected Kurdish demands for a federal state, saying it cannot be implemented under foreign military occupation and an unstable security situation.

The proposal came a day before Sunni, Shia and Kurdish political leaders were scheduled to meet to try to thrash out differences on such sensitive issues as Iraq's identity, the role of Islam, federalism and the distribution of wealth to meet the 15 August deadline for parliamentary approval.

The Sunnis said federalism could be implemented in the future when there is a parliament that represents all Iraqis, said member Kamal Hamdan, in reference to the National Assembly that only has 17 Sunni Arab members of the 275 legislators.

"The proposal rejects federalism at the present time because it is difficult to implement it when the country is occupied and the security situation is unstable," Hamdan said.

al Jazeera

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1. Iraqi security forces raid home of prominent Sunni official

BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi security forces raided the house of an Arab Sunni netconstitution writer in Baghdad Friday night,an Arab Sunni member of the committee for writing the charter said on Saturday.

"Iraqi forces raided the house of Fakhri al-Qaiysi late last night," Salih al-Mutlak, a member of the committee, told Xinhua.

"It was stupid and incorrect act," al-Mutlak said.Qaiysi was in an Iraqi Council of the National Dialogue (ICND)delegation, an Arab Sunni political body, which met the interior minister a few days ago to urge a halt to search of Arab Sunni houses.



However, al-Mutlak said, "We have information that some parties want to assassinate Sunni leaders by December to prevent Sunnis from taking part in the coming elections." He stopped short of mentioning names of these parties.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/06/content_3318005.htm

[FloridaPat]

2. What's federalism? Their own country? I bet that would make a

lot of repub go crazy.

[Igel]

4. No. More like "decentralization", giving

the Shi'a-majority and Kurdish-majority areas a large degree of independence, and restricting the authority of the central government.

Of course, it would give Sunni Arabs a large degree of local control, as well, but the powers-that-be in those areas are opposed to it. To a large extent they already had all the effects of local control.

The chief bit of speculation is that it's access to and control of oil money. The Sunni Arab areas tend to be oil-poor, but were patronage-rich in the past, according to most reports.

I also suspect it's because they have a traditional reluctance to having their authority questioned, whether Bathist or Islamist.

And it may just be fears that laxing of control would lead inevitably to a breakup of the country, which would create a real barrier to oil money and control if it was done peacefully. (But what're the chances of that happening?)

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3. Iraq Kurds push for federal constitution as US hunts rebels

The autonomous Kurdish parliament was set to debate the thorny issues of Iraq's draft constitution as US and Iraqi troops hunted for rebels along the western Euphrates valley.

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Kurdish members of 71-strong drafting committee were set to brief the Kurdish regional parliament on the stumbling blocks later Saturday, paricularly federalism, the long oppressed minority's main demand.

The emergency meeting of the Kurdish parliament prompted a two-day postponement of a wider national conference of top Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to break the constitutional deadlock.

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"We are worried about comments from some on the committee," said the regional parliament's speaker, Adnan Mufti, who is also a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the former rebel group of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=64145

[msongs]

5. breaking iraq into ethnic zones would be true democracy, and

didn't our precious leader say we are in Iraq to advocat and promote democracy (people deciding their own fate thru the election process, unlike the USA where the election process is becoming rigged).

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

BTW - if the sunni section has no oil, they can hire halliburton to create some with sideways angle drilling hehe

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6. Kurds dig heels in over Iraq constitution dispute

"We should be flexible in negotiations but that does not mean we should haggle over our demands," Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani told the Kurdish parliament in Arbil, capital of their autonomous zone in the north.

"There is still argument over some basic points, such as Iraq's identity, Kurdistan's borders, the future of the peshmerga (Kurdish militia) and distributing natural resources."

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"All our demands for the panel are red lines that cannot be crossed. We will not soften them, they are our minimum rights."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&summit=&storyid=2005-08-06T162633Z_01_MOL656378_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-KURDS.xml