Sunnis return to constitution committee

The representatives for the Arab Sunnis in Iraq, members in the constitution writing committee, announced on Tuesday ending their boycott of the committee's work after the assassination of two Sunni members last week.

This was confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by Salim Abdullah, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the parliamentary committee in charge of writing the permanent constitution for Iraq. Abdullah said that a decision was taken to the return back of the Sunni members to the committee as from Tuesday.

Abdullah explained that the "approval on the return of forces absent from the elections ( the Arab Sunnis) to the committee was made to assert that these forces have the right to withdraw their representatives when it considers that there is a violation to this rights.

Abdullah considered that the document (constitution draft) which was submitted does not win consent and is considered null unless the representatives for the Sunni forces have a role in accepting or rejecting it. He stressed rejecting any statements made by members of the committee that want forces that did not take part in the elections took place in January to be excluded.

The Iraqi constitution formulating committee met last Saturday in the absence of all its Arab Sunni members who suspended their membership last Thursday in protest of the killing of two of their colleagues in the downtown of Baghdad at the hands of unknown gunmen.

The Sunni representatives laid conditions for their return back including opening up an international investigation on the killing of the two representatives Damer Hassan al-Obeidi and Mejbel sl-Sheikh Issa and improving and taking measures to protect members of the committee and revision of articles pertinent to the federal rule system.

The state run al-Sabah Iraqi daily on Tuesday issued excerpts from the new constitution which is being discussed. The first article of the constitution said that "the Iraqi republic is an independent state of sovereignty. The ruling system is of a federal democratic republic ( federal).

The second article indicated that Islam is the official religion of the country. It is the basic source for legislation and no law should be enacted in contradiction with its principles and rules."

According to article four of the constitution, "Arabic language is the official language in the Iraqi state while the Kurdish language should be in addition to the Arabic language the official language in Kurdistan district. When the federal governments and governorates take any other local language as an extra official language, if the majority of its citizens will approve that in a general referendum." Sheikh Humam Hammoudi, the chairman of the parliamentary committee in charge of formulating the constitution, said today that the permanent draft constitution for the country should be ready in the first of August.

The committee is derived from the Iraqi National Assembly (parliament) and has to draw a permanent constitution by August 15, and organizing a referendum on accepting it before October 15.

The constitution needs a majority of votes for approval, but under the condition it not be rejected by three out of 18 governorates and at a majority of two thirds each. When the constitution is approved, general elections should be carried out in a date not to exceed December and the new government to be formed by the fall of December 31st, 2005. If the committee fails to write a draft in the due time, there are provisions for a six months extension for the this process.