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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| Sunnis to help write Iraq constitution | |
| 2005-06-06 | |
BAGHDAD - The parliamentary commission tasked with drawing up Iraq's new constitution has agreed to bring on board representatives of the disenchanted Sunni minority, a member of the body said on Sunday. "We have agreed in principle to accept the fact that (Sunnis) will be on equal footing, under the same rules as the members of the committee," the body's vice president Adnan Janabi told AFP, himself a Sunni but elected on a secular list.
Sunnis, who held power under deposed leader Saddam Hussein, are believed to be driving "The committee will consist of 69 members: the committee's 55 MPs, 13 Sunni representatives and a Mandean," added committee president Humam Hammudi, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the leading Shiite alliance in parliament. The Sabean-Mandeans are a small religious group who revere John the Baptist as the last in a long line of prophets. Around half the Sunni representatives will be members of political parties and the others representatives from Sunnis regions, mainly in the centre and the west of the country, Hammudi said. "The Sunnis will decide (on their representatives) on their own, we have no right to dictate to them," said Janabi. Sunni involvement in Iraq's political process will "clip the wings of those who think that taking up arms is the only way to obtain a free Iraq", he said. But the question of who within the committee has the right to vote, a right the rules say is only available to MPs, remained vague. "The committee of the 55 has not yet decided how and under what circumstances" Sunnis will take part, said Janabi. Parliament approved the committee on May 10. Twenty-eight of its members are from the dominant Shiite list, which won 143 seats in the 275-member parliament in January's elections. The committee also includes 15 Kurds, eight from former premier Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqi List and four others from minority groups. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 The Sabean-Mandeans are a small religious group who revere John the Baptist as the last in a long line of prophets. guesn their not em moset popyooler peples their |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2005-06-06 01:17 |