Algerian Diplomats Are Abducted in Iraq
By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 21, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 21 - The top Algerian diplomat in Iraq and another envoy were abducted by gunmen today in what appeared to be the latest strike in the insurgent campaign to drive Muslim diplomats from the country.
The kidnapping, which took place in daylight in an upscale neighborhood of western Baghdad, followed attacks earlier this month on three Muslim diplomats and could impair the Bush administration's efforts to persuade neighboring countries to send ambassadors here.
In early July, the top Egyptian diplomat here was kidnapped and apparently was killed, while a Pakistani ambassador and a Bahraini diplomat survived separate assassination attempts. Both those men said they were leaving Iraq, despite urgings from American and Iraqi officials that that all countries strengthen their diplomatic ties in order to endow the nascent Iraqi government with international legitimacy.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government's drive for domestic political legitimacy among recalcitrant Sunni Arabs here continued to stall today, as Sunni Arab leaders involved in the writing of the constitution refused to resume talks over the drafting until far-reaching demands were met.
The Sunnis had announced they were withdrawing temporarily from the process following the assassinations on Tuesday of two colleagues working with the constitutional committee. Today, some members said they would not return until an international investigation was started into the killings, and until the Shiite and Kurdish dominated committee gave the Sunni Arabs more representation.
Kamal Hamdoun, who holds one of 17 Sunni seats on the 71-member committee, said international investigators were needed to look into the recent murders because Shiite militias may have been responsible. Since last spring, when the Shiites took power here after the January elections, Sunnis have been accusing Shiite militias and the uniformed Iraqi forces of quietly killing Sunni figures across the country. The government and the political parties running the militias have denied any such actions.
The absence of the Sunnis from the constitution writing could undermine the legitimacy of the American-backed political process and further distance the formerly ruling Sunni Arabs, who make up a fifth of the population, from the rest of Iraqi society. The Shiites and the Kurds are hurrying along with the constitution, hoping to meet an Aug. 15 deadline by which the Parliament is supposed to approve a draft.
Such deadlines, laid out in the interim constitution, have been broken before in the political process, but American officials are pushing hard for the Parliament to meet this one in order to show that the democratic enterprise here is on track, at a time when insurgent violence is unabating and support for the war is waning in the United States.
The Shiite head of the constitutional committee, Sheik Humam Hamoudi, insisted on Wednesday that a full draft of the document would be completed by Aug. 1. A leaked draft of one section has already set off protests from women's groups, who say it strengthens religious law and sharply curtails women's rights.
Several of the Sunni Arabs pulling out of the committee on Wedneday said they would not return until the Iraqi government provided adequate security. They accused the government of failing to adequately protect their colleagues, Mejbil Issa and Dhamin Hussein al-Obeidi, who were gunned down Tuesday afternoon by unknown assailants while driving through downtown Baghdad. Insurgent groups had threatened to kill Sunni Arabs working on the constitution, hoping to prevent broad Sunni support for the political process.
"We have suspended our presence in the constitutional committee meetings for reasons regarding our own security and because of the negligence we are suffering," siad Fakhri al-Qaisi, whose political group counts among its members several of the Sunni constitution writers, including those who were killed.The participation of Sunni Arabs in the drafting of the constitution and full-term elections scheduled for December is also considered crucial by the Bush administration to politically co-opt the stubborn Sunni-led insurgency while planting a version of democracy here in the heart of the Middle East.
Unless all major ethnic and religious groups take part in the process, the civil conflict may worsen. If Sunni Arabs feel excluded, they may continue to take up arms against the Shiites, Kurds and Americans.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at an Iraqi Army recruiting center in Baghdad, killing at least six men and wounding at least 29 other people, hospital officials said. More than 100 men, mostly potential recruits, have been killed in frequent suicide bombings at the center, which is at the defunct Muthana military airport.
The sheik of a mosque in southern Baghdad, Muhammad Ali, was gunned down after morning prayers. Far to the south, in the conservative Shiite city of Basra, the deputy head of the provincial council, Hussein al-Daraji, was shot to death, said Abdul Zahra Sameer, another council member. Mr. Daraji belonged to the Fadilah Party, founded by a radical Shiite cleric.
The two Sunnis working on the constitution who were killed Tuesday belonged to the National Dialogue Council, a prominent Sunni political group. Last month, the drafting committee, which had 55 seats - only two of them held by Sunni Arabs - agreed after protracted negotiations to give 15 additional seats to Sunnis and to add 10 consulting positions. Mr. Issa held one of the 15 seats, and Mr. Obeidi was a consultant.There is no evidence to suggest that Shiites or Kurds killed Mr. Issa and Mr. Obeidi. The most obvious suspect in the murders is Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Sunni guerrilla group led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sheik Hamoudi said Wednesday that the Sunnis' security concerns could be easily addressed. "We hope our brothers resume their cooperation and conversations with us," he said. In recent meetings, he added, "there was a sense of frank, direct and positive conversation with them."
The Sunnis have been at sharp odds with the Shiites and particularly the Kurds on the issue of autonomy. The Kurds are lobbying to keep the strong governing powers they have enjoyed in the north since 1991, when the United States declared a "no flight" zone there after the Persian Gulf war that year. Some Shiite politicians have been advocating a similar autonomous region in the south, which like the area around Kirkuk in the north is rich in oil.
There is little in the way of natural resources in the expansive deserts of western Iraq, the heartland of the Sunni Arabs. "I will refuse this completely," Mr. Qaisi said of the autonomy concept.
On the issue of women's rights and religious law, Sheik Hamoudi said some panel members met with women's groups on Tuesday after a protest in downtown Baghdad. The women are incensed about an article in a draft of the second chapter of the constitution that would cancel a law enacted in 1959 that, using liberal interpretations of the Koran, ensures certain rights for women.
Under the draft, a family would settle disputes involving personal issues like marriage and inheritance under the law of the family's individual sect or religion.
"Some points have been discussed, and there is disagreement about these points," Sheik Hamoudi said. "Until now, nothing has been finalized."
Kassim Daoud, another committee member, said a quota that requires at least quarter of parliamentary seats to be filled by women would be dropped after a couple of full terms of Parliament. The quota was enshrined in the interim constitution, and women's groups are fighting to keep it or even increase it.
Ali Adeeb contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article, and Fakr al-Haider from Basra.
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