Iraq constitution ready for printing

The UN gave instructions to start printing some five million copies of the Iraqi constitution which it had received on Sunday from the Iraqi parliament in preparation to circulate it on the Iraqi citizens before the referendum on the constitution set for mid October.

One member of the UN committee which attended the parliament's meeting said "if matters proceed well, we will start the printing of the constitutions tomorrow ( Monday)," noting that the printing operation will take ten days and that the printing will be in Arabic and Kurdish languages.

The official who asked to be anonymous said that the process of circulating the constitution to citizens will be made in coordination with the government and by various means, in order to guarantee the access of copies of the constitution to all areas of Iraq.

Deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament Hussein Shahrastani announced the handing over of the draft constitution to the UN after he had read to the parliamentarians the five amended items of the constitution, amended in response to the demands set by the Sunni, in particular. Among these amendments is removal of the sentence "the Arab people in Iraq constitute an integral part of the Arab nation" from the third article, a sentence which provoked the concern of the Arab Sunni and the Arab League, since the statement meant that only some Iraqis are Arabs, and not all of them.

The second amendment pertains to article 44 on international agreements and treaties while the third and fourth agreements relate to water policies in Iraq. The fifth amendment on article 135 states that the prime minister has two deputies in the first election session.