Thousands of Arab Sunnis took to the streets of Iraq on Monday to demonstrate against the country’s draft Constitution — but a moderate Sunni group hinted it might back the Constitution in a referendum due in October.
Crowds in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit waved placards of the former president and vowed to defeat a Constitution, which they said betrayed the once-dominant Sunni minority.
US helicopters hovered overhead as the 2 000-strong rally assembled outside the office of the Muslim Scholars’ Association, a group of hardline clerics which has urged a no vote in the referendum.
Although tension with the Shia has fuelled the Sunni insurgency, some protesters even held up pictures of Shia clerics who have joined the Sunnis in rejecting the Constitution endorsed by the ruling Shia and Kurd coalition. Sunnis opposed to the Constitution have found common cause with maverick Shias such as Moqtada al-Sadr, who reject a federal state.
Resentment surged on Monday over claims that 36 bodies found bound and shot south of Baghdad last week were not Shia soldiers, as first reported, but Sunni men abducted by the security forces. Separately, police said they recovered 13 bodies in three western towns.
On Sunday, Shia and Kurdish negotiators gave up trying to win over the Sunnis and endorsed a constitutional text that will be presented to voters on October 15.
The Sunni delegates said it was a recipe for breaking up Iraq into autonomous regions, diminishing its Arab heritage, alienating Sunnis and facilitating Iranian meddling.
On Monday, however, the Iraqi Islamic party, a moderate group, said that although the draft did not represent its hopes and aspirations, there was still room for negotiation.
”We might say yes to the Constitution if the disputed points are resolved,” it said.
Some observers interpreted this as a veiled plea for a yes vote. With five million copies to be printed this week, changes to the draft are unlikely.
A senior western diplomat said some moderates saw the Constitution as balanced — albeit flawed — thanks to eleventh-hour changes that deferred contentious details to the next Parliament. But they did not dare speak out openly. One politician has received a warning note that included the line: ”Regards to your two daughters.”
Though just a fifth of the 26-million population, Sunnis may be able to get a two-thirds majority in three of 18 provinces, which would constitute a veto.
On Monday the 275-seat interim assembly proposed a law to sack members who repeatedly failed to turn up. The decision was deferred because too many were absent. – Guardian Unlimited Â