Iraqi Council Signs Interim Constitution

Monday, March 8, 2004
By Dexter Filkins

New York Times Writer

"We already have our own government," one Kurdish official said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "If the Shiites try to make us obey, we won't ask for anything. We will just keep what we have."

Left: Council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum said, "We must put the interests of our nation above all of our interests. The world is waiting and expecting us to work in the service of our nation."

Image Credit: Reuters

Right: A United States soldier stood guard on Sunday at the entrance of a road leading to the scene of a rocket attack in Baghdad. Iraqi insurgents fired rockets at the headquarters of the American-led occupation.

Image Credit: Joao Silva -- for NYT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- NYT
The Iraqi Governing Council unanimously approved an interim constituion on Monday after Shiite leaders ended the deadlock that had threatened to undermine the transfer of sovereignty by the American-led occupation force to the Iraqi people scheduled for later this year.

All 25 members of the council signed the document during a ceremony in Baghdad. The Associated Press said that just before the ceremony started, a large explosion was heard in Baghdad, but no casualties were reported.

The Shiite leaders, who had refused last week to sign the interim constitution, said dropped their demands that the document be changed. The leaders said they had made their decision to endorse the constitution after having received the approval of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite leader.

"You will hear very good news, very soon; the signing will take place Monday," said one of the five Shiites, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, after a meeting with Ayatollah Sistani in the holy Shiite city of Najaf. "We are glad the ayatollah understood our position. He does not want to provoke a crisis in the country, but wishes to facilitate our work to make the political process succeed without any interruption."

The Shiite leaders said they had agreed to sign the document despite their concerns that it could grant a relatively small number of people veto power over Iraq's permanent constitution, which is to be written after nationwide elections are held this year or next.

"We've decided to sign the constitution and resolve the problems in it later," said Hamid al-Bayati, a senior leader with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the groups that refused to sign the document on Friday.

The change of heart by the Shiite leaders appears to represent a retreat by Ayatollah Sistani, who touched off the impasse last week by expressing his concerns to the Shiite leaders.

Until Sunday, the ayatollah had all but dictated to American officials the terms of such important political questions as elections. Comments by Ayatollah Sistani in January, for instance, scuttled an agreement by which a future Iraqi national assembly would have been selected in a series of nationwide caucuses.

Shiite leaders said Sunday that Ayatollah Sistani had dropped his objections to the interim constitution because he did not want to spoil the Iraqis' opportunity to get a constitution, even an imperfect one.

"Sistani and the others are not micromanaging the political process," said a Shiite political leader who met with Ayatollah Sistani on Sunday, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They have confidence in the Shiite representatives. They understand the political realities. As long as the issue is stated and put out in the open, then they are not going to stand in the way."

(More: NYTimes.com / International)

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Dan