What a mess Iraq is...
Sunnis on Iraq's constitution committee shot dead By Peter Graff
10 minutes ago
Gunmen shot dead three Sunni Arab members of the team drafting Iraq's new constitution on Tuesday, striking a blow against the body seen as the best hope for providing a political end to the insurgency.
Drawing Sunni Arabs on to the committee, due to deliver a new constitution by Aug 15, was the cornerstone of the U.S.-backed strategy of persuading members of the restive minority to move off the streets and into peaceful politics.
Sheikh Mujbil al-Sheikh Isa, Aziz Ibrahim and Dhamin Hussein Ileywi were shot as they left a restaurant in Baghdad's central Karrada district, a police source said.
A Reuters television cameraman at the city's St Raphael's Hospital saw three bodies being pulled from a dark blue car that had been sprayed with bullets. Their wounded driver was loaded into the back of a truck.
"We send our condolences to their families and to all the people of Iraq," parliament head Hajem al-Hassani said when told of the killings by reporters. "Those who carried these crimes out want to spread sectarian divisions."
The three men represented a Sunni umbrella group called the Iraqi National Dialogue.
Isa and Ileywi were full members of the 71-strong constitutional committee, while Ibrahim was a member of an advisory panel assisting it, said Iraqi National Dialogue spokesman Salih al-Mutlaq.
"I cannot describe this as anything other than a cowardly act. It reflects the disorder in this state. I blame the government because they can't provide security for members of this committee," Mutlaq told Reuters.
Hours earlier, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, issued a statement saying he hoped the draft constitution could be ready early -- by the end of this month -- if Sunni concerns could be quickly addressed.
Fifteen Sunni members joined the committee last month, making it the first nationwide political body to include significant Sunni Arab representation since the new government took office in April.
The other members are mostly Shi'ites and Kurds, elected to parliament in a January vote boycotted by most Sunnis.
Two members of parliament have been assassinated since the election, but Tuesday's victims were the first members of the constitution-drafting committee to be killed.
Insurgents had sworn to kill any Sunni Arabs that took part.
The constitution due on Aug. 15 would then be put to a vote in October, which the United States and the Iraqi authorities hope would be the first ballot to include widespread participation by all of Iraq's main communities.
A leader would be elected under the new constitution in December.
Members of the committee say it has been held up by questions that divide Iraqis on sectarian and ethnic lines -- above all, questions of how to split resources and political power for regions such as the Kurdish north that want autonomy.
Isa came from the northern city of Kirkuk, where Sunni Arabs favored by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein are now battling Kurds for control. Both sides have sought language in the constitution that would decide the fate of the oil-rich city. |
