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Iraqis Said to OK Interim Constitution
Iraqi politicians agreed on the draft of an interim constitution early Monday, reaching a compromise on the role of Islam and putting off the details of Kurdish autonomy, an Iraqi official said. The charter will likely be signed Wednesday.
| Not too shabby, couple days late. |
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council, with U.S. administrators mediating, ended a second late night of negotiations at 4:20 a.m. with "full agreement ... on each article," said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Shiite Muslim council member Ahmad Chalabi. The interim charter, officially the Transitional Administrative Law, will remain in effect until a permanent constitution is drafted and ratified next year. It underlines that the rights of all Iraqi citizens will be respected and sets aside for women 25 percent of the seats in the provisional legislature, Qanbar said.
| That ought to put a stop to Islamic law. |
According to Qanbar, the interim constitution charter will recognize Islam as a major source of legislation and ban any laws which violate the tenets of the Muslim faith. U.S. officials and secular-minded members got their way with the phrase "a source" - out of many sources - but the ban on laws that violate Islam was aimed at pleasing conservatives. U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer had hinted he would veto conservatives' phrasing setting Islamic law as "the" main basis of law, which some feared would create an Islamic state and restrict women's rights.
| Keep the wymyn in the legislature and Bremer won't need to veto. |
The interim charter affirmed the principle of federalism but left details of how this would be implemented - particularly in areas where ethnic Kurds enjoy self-rule - to a future elected government. The document will likely be signed Wednesday, after the Shiite Muslim religious holiday of Ashoura ends, said Qanbar, of the Iraqi National Congress. Bremer must then sign the document.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-03-01 |
