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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (185281)	3/22/2004 11:09:40 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1573841

Iraq's Sistani Warns U.N. Not to Back Constitution 2 hours, 55 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s top Shi'ite cleric has urged the United Nations (news - web sites) not to endorse the country's interim constitution, his office said Monday, raising a potentially grave obstacle to U.S. plans to hand power to Iraqis on July 1. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani told senior U.N. official Lakhdar Brahimi in a letter that unless the United Nations rejects the constitution, he would boycott a U.N. team expected to visit Iraq soon to advise on forming an interim government. Another threat to any orderly transition is the violence that has convulsed Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion a year ago. Two visiting Finnish businessmen were shot dead in Baghdad Monday in the latest of a spate of attacks on foreigners. Finnish broadcaster YLE said they were killed at midday while on their way to the Electricity Ministry. An Iraqi security guard was shot dead and three were wounded in the northern city of Mosul as they walked to work, Iraqi security officials said. A civilian was also wounded. A suicide car bomb wounded six members of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps outside a U.S. military base north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Only the bomber was killed. The U.S. military also said a roadside bomb had killed a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter while they were on patrol west of Baghdad Sunday. Three U.S. soldiers were wounded. The soldier's death raised to 396 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the start of the war. Insurgents have killed a much higher number of Iraqi police and paramilitaries. As U.S.-led forces struggle with the insurgency, Washington has pushed ahead with plans to return sovereignty to Iraq in 10 weeks' time, under a transitional law signed by the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council earlier this month. CLERIC'S OBJECTIONS Sistani, in a letter published by his office, said the United Nations should not approve the de facto constitution. "The (Shi'ite) religious establishment fears the occupation authorities will work to include this law in a new U.N. resolution to give it international legitimacy," he wrote. "We warn that any such step will not be acceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous consequences." The cleric's letter is likely to dismay U.S. authorities keen to stick to the mid-year handover deadline on the basis of the interim constitution, preferably with U.N. approval. Poland said Monday it hoped the United Nations would adopt a mandate for peacekeepers in Iraq that would persuade Spain not to pull out its troops, as it has threatened to do. Spain's incoming prime minister has said Madrid will withdraw its 1,300 soldiers on June 30 unless the United Nations is put in charge of the political transition in Iraq. Sistani wields great influence over Iraq's majority Shi'ites. His reservations held up the signing of the interim constitution for days. His latest objections could jeopardize the U.S. handover deadline, or at least undermine the legitimacy of any Iraqi government that assumes power. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said last week he would send a team to Iraq soon to help in the formation of an interim government, at the request of the Governing Council. Some Shi'ites have criticized Brahimi and Annan for a report they wrote which concurred with U.S. authorities that general elections were not immediately feasible. Sistani had wanted full national elections before June 30, which would probably have favored the Shi'ite majority. Under the interim constitution, direct elections must be held by January 2005 for a transitional government which will oversee the writing of a permanent constitution. In his letter, Sistani said the interim constitution was unworkable because it sets up a three-person presidential council, which he said would comprise a Sunni, a Kurd and a Shi'ite. They would be required to take unanimous decisions. "This builds a basis for sectarianism. Consensus would not be reached unless there is pressure from a foreign power, or a deadlock would be reached that destabilizes the country and could lead to break-up," Sistani said.