- BAGHDAD -- The United States-appointed
Governing Council in Iraq remained deadlocked yesterday over the role of
Islam in Iraq and Kurdish demands for federalism, after failing to meet
a deadline for agreeing an interim constitution for the country.
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- Urgent talks continued after the council failed to meet
the deadline of midnight on Saturday, underlining the increasingly dangerous
divisions in Iraqi society. The main sticking point is the role of Islam,
amid concerns that many on the council want to institute sharia law. Iraqi
women's groups are warning that women may lose freedoms they enjoyed even
under Saddam Hussein's regime.
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- Despite council members' attempts to downplay their divisions,
it appeared they had failed to agree on any of the most contentious issues
facing Iraq as the US handover date looms.
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- There was believed to be no agreement on Kurdish demands
to protect their autonomy in the north of Iraq, and no agreement on a mechanism
for sharing power between the three main sectors of Iraqi society: the
Shia Arab majority, the Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds.
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- The protracted wrangling over these issues will only
increase fears of a civil war.
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- For many Iraqis, the constitutional wrangling has served
to highlight the lack of democracy in the Americans' planned hand-over
of sovereignty. Iraq's new constitution is being drawn up by an unelected
council that was hand-picked by the Americans and has very little support
among ordinary Iraqis. So loathed are some of the council members that
many say they could not walk down a street in Baghdad without being killed.
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- Yet the council is refusing to stick to the American
script. Many of its members openly back the introduction of sharia - which
would be embarrassing for the Americans. The key battle is over a move
to make divorce and inheritance rights subject to Islamic law. Under Saddam,
women had equal divorce and inheritance rights to men. The new law would
take away those rights.
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- The council voted the new measures into law, but after
a concerted effort led by Iraqi women, it was overturned in a new vote.
Several Shia council members stormed out in protest at the reversal of
the decision. Discussions reportedly only resumed after Paul Bremer, the
American chief administrator in Iraq, joined the council.
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- Mr Bremer has, in effect, threatened to veto any law
that includes the inheritance and divorce provisions. All council decisions
have to be signed by him before they are recognised as laws, and he has
said he will not sign any law that includes them. One Shia leader, the
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has made vague threats of armed resistance if Mr
Bremer vetoes the law.
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- Discussions are reportedly deadlocked on how to share
the presidency. The original proposal was for the presidency to rotate
between the Shia, Sunni and Kurds, but the Shia are demanding a greater
share to reflect the size of their population.
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- Shia and Sunni oppose the Kurds' demands for autonomy
in the north. More contentious still are Kurdish demands to include the
city of Kirkuk in their area, which contains Iraq's richest oil reserves.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=496535
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