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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
.Leading Shiite seeks
autonomy for region
Proposal endangers new constitution
By Edward Wong
BAGHDAD: One of Iraq's most powerful
Shiite politicians' called Thursday
for the formation of a semi-independent
region in the oil-rich south, throwing
the drafting of the new constitution
into further turmoil and endangering a
crucial deadline looming just four days
away. .
. The'politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,
a Shiite with close ties to Iran, said be-
, fore a large gathering of followers in the
holy city of Najaf that it was necessary
to secure broad governing powers for
the south, which is dominated by Shiite
Arabs and was long oppressed under
the rule:of Saddam Hussein. .
The issue of autonomous regions is the
biggest sticking'point in talks over the '
constituticin>Kurdish leaders, intent on
preserving the wide powers of Iraqi Kurdistan
in the north, have been'the biggest
. proponents of regional autonomy.
The former ruling Sunni Arabs, fearing
an unfair division of oil resources,
have adamantly rejected the idea. Sunni
Arab leaders immediately denounced
'flakim's remarks and said it would now
be almost impossible to finish the con-.'
stitution on time.
"I don't think we will reach an agree"
ment in four days," said Fakhri al-Qaisi,
a SunI1iArab member of the 7l-seat constitutional
committee. "There's no
agreement between any of the groups.
. All the doors have closed. The Kurds
. have insisted on their demands. The
Shia insist on their demands."
Until now, Shiite religious leaders'
had said they wanted moderate regional.
autonomy. But Hakim's demands
marked a break from that and followed
a meeting he had on Wednesday in Na- .
jaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,'
the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq.
The ayatollah told Shiite politicians
last week that he supported the concept
of autonomy, though he did not .make
specific recommendations.
Hakim wields enormous influence
on constitutional committee because its
chairman, Humam Hamoudi, is a close
aide to Hakim.
Throughout the constitution drafting
process, the country's major ethnic and
sectarian groups have bargained hard
on a variety of matters, but no single is-
sue has inspired more frustration or ill
will than the definition of regional
powers.' . .
. Hakim's remar~ pushed the IW!Jor.
negotiating groups farther apart Just,
. daysbefore an AlI:g.15 deadline, when
the National Assembly is supposed to
approve a draft of the constitution and
pave:the way for a referendum on the.
document in October and national elections
in December.
The Bush administration has been.
putting enormous pressure on the'
Iraqis to stick to the political timetable,'
in hopes that the process will help drain
the Sunni Arab insurgency of some of
its wrath and bolster flagging American
opinion on the war in Iraq. .
Qaisi, the Sunni leader, said. the
Sunni Arabs could not approve of the
creation of autonomous regions, as in ai
confederation, because that would lead,
to the breakup o£Iraq. :
"We want the unity of Iraq," he said,:
"and we want to preserve this unity." :
The insurgent war continued to roil;
the country Wednesday, as Iraqi offi-:
cials reported that at least seven people,
including three Iraqi soldiers and an intelligence
officer, were killed in various'
attacks. .
The American military said an un-'
manned aerial drone crashed near thet
: northern city of Mosul on Thesday.
, night. American troops went to retrieve'
the drone, but "the local population car-
: ried it away prior to the arrival of the
troops," the military said in a statement.
. An official with the tribunal charged
with trying Saddam and his aides said
the trial of Saddam would almost cer-.
tainly take place in mid-October at the
earliest. The tribunal will likely give:
Saddam's lawyers a definite date at the
end of this month, and the lawyers will
then be given at least 45 days to prepare,
said the official.
The movement for southern autonomy
that Hakim supports has been gathering
momentum over the summer.
Politicians in the south, particularly in
Basra, have been lobbying drafters of
the constitution to enshrine in the document
the right of provinces in. Iraq to
break off into autonomous regions, similar
to Iraqi Kurdistan.
The south could profit enormously
from such an arrangement - it has 80
to 90 percent of Iraq's vast oil reserves
and the only ports in the country. Many
southerners say they are frustrated that
the central government in Baghdad.
does not allocate more' oil revenues to
their impoverished region.
Many of the Shiite politicians who
initially backed the idea of southern autonomy
are secular. Hakim is the first
leading religious Shiite figure to lend
his backing.
The New YorkTImes
Iraqis commemorated the second anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir ai-Hakim, a Shiite cleric, shown in the portrait, in Najaf, Iraq, on Thursday. The
cleric's brother. Abdul Aziz ai-Hakim, called at the commemoration for the formation of a semi-independent region that Shiites would dominate.
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