Iraqi leaders prepared on Thursday for a conference to try to break the deadlock on a draft Constitution amid unabated violence that left at least 20 people dead, a day after 15 United States marines were killed by rebels.
US President George Bush insisted his troops will remain in Iraq until their mission is accomplished, despite the military losses, even as Wednesday’s attack on marines marked one of the deadliest against US forces since the war.
”The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face,” Bush said in a speech in the small Texas town of Grapevine.
Fourteen marines were killed near the north-western town of Haditha on Wednesday in a roadside bombing, while another died in Ramadi, a restive town west of Baghdad.
At least 39 US troops have died in the past 10 days in one of the deadliest anti-US bouts since the March 2003 invasion.
Iraq was preparing for Friday’s national conference on the Constitution, ahead of an August 15 deadline for a draft of the charter to be submitted to Parliament.
”All the top leaders will take part,” said Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish member of the committee drafting the Constitution. ”They will try to find solutions to the problems still outstanding.”
But he added: ”It’s going to be a really difficult task.”
Unresolved issues include ”federalism, official languages, the relation between religion and state, the name of the republic, the rights of women and the question of Kirkuk”, the oil-rich northern province that Kurds want included in their own autonomous region, Othman said.
Those attending the conference include Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, representing the ruling Shi’ite-based alliance; President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, representing the Kurds; former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, along with Hamid Majid, representing the communists; and Sunni Vice-President Ghazi al-Yawar.
Parliamentary Speaker Hajim Al-Hasani also urged the leaders to settle these issues fast.
”I have asked the leaders to settle the issues fast and reach a compromise, as it will permit the Iraqi Parliament to complete the draft Constitution in time,” Hasani said.
The national conference is due to report by August 12 and any matters still unresolved will be put to the full Parliament for decision by majority vote.
A national referendum on the Constitution is planned for October 15, to be followed by general elections in mid-December and the setting up of a new government at the start of next year.
Thamer al-Ghadban, a legislator from Allawi’s party, told reporters on Wednesday that drafters agreed on the system ”to reinforce democracy and prevent the return of a dictatorship”.
Iraq will be a parliamentary republic with a strong prime minister and a figurehead president, according to the latest draft of the Constitution.
”The highest executive authority in the country and the commander in chief of the armed forces will be the prime minister, while the post of head of state will be largely honorific,” Ghadban said.
Parliament will designate the president, who in turn will choose a vice-president. The prime minister will be from the political group ”most represented in National Assembly” and will have the authority to ratify international treaties, Ghadban said.
The system represents a radical change compared to the last half-century of dictatorship, where the only legislative bodies were rubber-stamps for the powerful executive.
The new Constitution is a key element in Iraq’s political transformation following the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003 and is an important milestone in US plans for a military withdrawal from Iraq.
On Thursday, at least 20 Iraqis were killed in separate attacks, including three Iraqi soldiers killed in a bomb blast near the northern town of Samarra, and two engineers working in a US base were killed by gunmen in Doloyah, north of Baghdad.
Four Iraqis died in a suicide bombing in Dahuk, in northern Iraq, and three police officers in the northern city of Kirkuk during an attack on their patrol.
And an aide to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, Haidar Mohammed Ali al Dujaili, was shot to death in his bed in south-east Baghdad.
Prime Minister Jaafari again argued for a strong security plan while speaking at a police academy.
”For us, security forces are not academic things, and it is not entertainment, but it is a shield to protect our blood, traditions and thoughts,” he said.
A survey published in Poland showed that 59% of the public demand a total withdrawal of their country’s troops from Iraq.
Poland has the third-largest contingent in the US-led coalition, and commands a multinational force of about 4 000. — Sapa-AFP