Doug Lorimer
While Washington is scrambling to keep Spain from withdrawing its contingent of 1300 troops from Iraq, it is threatened by a serious rift with another NATO ally, Turkey. Turkey is objecting to the interim constitution that the US has imposed on Iraq.
The interim constitution, officially called the "Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period", was signed by 21 of the 25 members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) at a March 8 ceremony inside the fortified Baghdad headquarters of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority. It will come into effect on June 30 when the CPA formally hands over "full sovereignty" to an "Iraqi interim government".
That same day, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported a "Turkish diplomat said Ankara was particularly worried over the status of the Kurds, whom it has long suspected of plotting to break away from Baghdad. It fears that increased political influence for the Iraqi Kurds could set an example for their restive cousins in adjoining southeast Turkey."
Under the interim constitution, Iraqi Kurdistan, consisting of three provinces in the country's north where 4.3 million Kurds live, will become an autonomous region within an Iraqi federal republic.
The Turkish government has repeatedly opposed any moves that might enhance self-rule in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey's 15.4 million Kurds would be encouraged to seek self-rule as a step toward an independent and unified Kurdistan.
While the pro-US Iraqi Kurdish parties in the IGC — Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party — are satisfied with the autonomy provisions in the interim constitution, many other Kurds are bitterly disappointed.
Disappointment
The March 16 Washington Times reported that many Iraqi Kurds "said they felt their leaders had betrayed them, not winning enough for the Kurds in the Baghdad negotiations over the future of Iraq. Specifically, Kurds want [the oil-rich cities of] Kirkuk and Khaneqin included in a future [Kurdistan regional] government and the 50,000[-strong] Peshmerga militia enshrined into law."
Under the interim constitution, all armed forces and militias that are not under the command structure of a federal, and therefore Arab-dominated, government — are prohibited unless "exemption is provided by federal law". The "Iraqi Transitional Government" is to come into being following elections for a 275-member parliament (National Assembly), to be held no later than January 31 next year.
The Washington Times reported that Iraqi Kurds "are deeply suspicious of any future Baghdad government dominated by Arabs".
It cited the comments of Mahmoud Fallah, a taxi driver in the predominately Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, as typical of Iraqi Kurds' feelings: "The Arabs will simply elect another version of Saddam [Hussein]. It was the government of Baghdad that wronged us in the previous decades."
A petition calling for a referendum on the status of northern Iraq has been presented to the UN signed by nearly two million Iraqi Kurds. "We want to let the people decide whether we're a part of Iraq or something else, like a new state", Amanj Saeed, told the Washington Times. There are no provisions in the interim constitution for any act of national self-determination by Iraq's Kurdish population.
Shiite criticisms
The March 9 Washington Post reported that many Arab Iraqis — particularly Shiites — were also critical of the interim constitution.
"I did not understand the interim constitution. Most people don't", Amir Ali, a university official in Baghdad, told the Post. "It was America who wrote the constitution."
In Baghdad, several thousand Shiites rallied against the interim constitution on March 12, waving banners that read: "We don't want an American constitution". "It is cooked by the Americans and their puppets in the governing council", one protester told AFP.
Arab Shiite clerics in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, where Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is based, criticised the document for granting too much power to Iraq's Kurds. The March 9 Washington Post reported that Sistani himself had criticised the interim constitution for "placing obstacles" in the path of reaching a permanent constitution.
According to the interim constitution, the CPA is to "dissolve" on June 30 and a "fully sovereign Interim Iraqi Government" is to assume power. CPA head Paul Bremer, however, has made it clear that the US-dominated CPA will become the US embassy in Iraq and US officials will continue to direct all Iraqi government departments.
At a Baghdad press briefing on February 19, Bremer said that "the Coalition Authority will become the world's largest embassy... There will be thousands of American government officials from all of our major departments still working here... And there will be 100,000 American troops and tens of thousands of coalition forces still here..."
The CPA will decide, in "consultation" with its handpicked IGC, how the "Interim Iraqi Government" is to be selected. According to the March 15 Boston Globe, the CPA and IGC "are leaning toward" keeping the IGC "in power within an expanded ruling body after June 30, despite a groundswell among Iraqis for a more representative government".
"We are in the process of expanding the governing council and modifying the powers of the council", a leading Shiite member of the IGC, Ibrahim al Jaafari, told the Globe. It also reported that "Shiite members disclosed yesterday they were already working on amending the constitution. Twelve of the 13 Shiite council members issued a statement after the interim document was signed last week, saying they still had serious reservations about the document."
IGC members, the Globe reported, "admit they still need to win credibility with Iraqis, but are hoping to expand their numbers rather than vote themselves out of jobs by July".
Bremer to decide
"The question is who is going to expand the council", said Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesperson for Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite IGC member who heads the US-created Iraqi National Congress. The INC is an organisation of former exiles that was paid US$1.3 million by the Pentagon last April and, according to the March 10 New York Times, is still being paid $340,000 a month by the Pentagon for "intelligence collection".
Since the IGC is the creation of the CPA, if an expanded IGC is to become the "Interim Iraqi Government" on June 30, it will be CPA boss Paul Bremer who will designate its new members and thus the supposedly "fully sovereign Interim Iraqi Government".
While the CPA is to formally dissolve on June 30, the interim constitution specifies that all the "laws, regulations, orders and directives" issued by the CPA are to remain in full effect unless "rescinded or amended by legislation duly enacted" — which presumably means until a parliament is elected under a permanent constitution.
The parliament that is to be elected no later than the end of January next year is to draft a permanent constitution and submit it to a referendum next year. However, if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the permanent constitution drafted by the parliament, the interim constitution will remain in effect and a new parliament must be elected.
According to the March 9 Washington Post, "Shiite politicians say the clause gives 10% of Iraqis the power to block the will of the rest and could result in instability if one draft after another is rejected". It also reported that the Shiite leaders are critical of the clause prohibiting any changes in the interim constitution without the approval of three-fourths of the elected parliament.
Permanent US control
The interim constitution provides a mechanism for legalising permanent US control of the new Iraqi Armed Forces that the occupation forces are recruiting and training. The document specifies that "the Iraqi Armed Forces will be a principal partner in the multinational force operating under unified command pursuant to the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1511 (2003), and any subsequent relevant resolutions".
Resolution 1511, unanimously adopted in October 2003, authorised the United States to create a "multinational force under unified command to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq".
At a March 17 Baghdad press briefing, US Army General Mark Kimmitt, media spokesperson for the US military command in Iraq, declared that the US-led occupation forces "are operating here and could well be operating after June 30th under the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1511".
Under the interim constitution, which is to remain in effect until a permanent constitution is ratified, the US-led occupation forces can legally remain in Iraq as long as UNSC Resolution 1511 remains in effect. Given that Washington only has to "persuade" 10% of Iraqis to vote against any permanent constitution it does not approve of, and the US has a veto on the Security Council, the US-led occupation and Washington's control of the new Iraqi armed forces will "legally" remain in effect as long as the US wants.
Meanwhile, the day after the signing of the interim constitution, General Kimmitt announced that all but nine of 24 suspects detained after the March 2 bombings of worshippers at Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala had been released.
Within hours of the bombings, which killed 181 Shiite worshippers (including 49 Iranian pilgrims), US officials claimed they were the work of foreigners linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network headed by Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden.
On March 9, Associated Press reported that Kimmitt said five of the 16 released suspects were Iranian pilgrims, and that all of the nine who remain in custody are "Arabic speakers believed to be Iraqis".
From Green Left Weekly, March 24, 2004.
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