Iraqis draft constitution nearly complete
Officials say it's 90 percent finished but won't make Saturday deadline
From Jane Arraf
CNN
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Turkmens demonstrate Saturday outside of the Iraq Governing Council office in Baghdad.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council probably will not finish drafting a transitional constitution by the midnight Saturday deadline, but it is very close to hammering out the document, a coalition official told CNN.
The council and the Coalition Provisional Authority continued talking into the night about the law, which would pave the way for an interim government. The document is about 90 percent complete, officials said.
The 25-member body is expected to agree on a transitional law soon, officials said, noting that the remaining contentious issues include the role of Islam and the structure of the presidency.
The November 15 handover agreement calls for the document to be completed by Saturday. The council is drafting the law and Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator, has to sign off on it.
Governing Council member Mahmud Othman, a long-term leader of the Kurdish National Struggle, told CNN a brief delay won't mar the negotiations among members of the council and the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"If it is delayed a bit nothing much will affect it because this is a deadline we put ourselves, I mean the coalition and the Governing Council, just the two of us," Othman said. "The two of us are in these meetings ... so if we say that we can't finish it, give it a few more days. It's very logical. It won't be any problem as far as Iraq is concerned."
The draft law is seen as an important, historic document for citizens to develop down the road a permanent constitution enshrined with democratic principles. The transitional law is designed to expire after a permanent constitution is approved and elections are held sometime after the June 30 handover.
"We have all agreed to a democratic Iraq. We have agreed to ballot boxes deciding everything, We have agreed that the people should chose everything. They've never said they wanted an Islamic law, Islamic state.
"The role of the Kurds and the Kurdish region have been on the table. Federalism is a key issue among Kurds, who have ruled an autonomous region in Iraq for many years and don't want to lose their status.
"We have never said we wanted a Kurdish state. The Arabs have never said they wanted a totally Arab state. So I think as long as we all agreed to democracy we should be flexible and meet in the middle," Othman said.
Othman indicated that the Arabic-Kurdish language issue has been resolved, saying that both the two official languages in Iraq and the rest of the people have the right to study or their own languages in their local areas.
"That's not a problem," he said.
Nevertheless, it is unclear whether Kurdish will only be official in the north or throughout the country.
Turkmens protest
So far, initial proposals have not gone over well with many of Iraq's minority Turkmens, who have been protesting since Wednesday.
In a statement issued Saturday, the Turkmens said they have decided to go on a hunger strike to protest what they say are inequities in the process. About 100 Turkmen people, some wrapped in chains and duct tape, staged a protest in Baghdad.
"The draft of the constitution shows superiority of some forces to achieve profits at the expense of the Turkmen people and the others of the Iraqi people," the statement said.
The Turkmens, ethnically close to Turks, live mostly in northern Iraq alongside Arabs and Kurds.
"We have declared to go on a hunger strike until all our rights in the constitution are decided like our brothers, the Iraqis of the Arabs and the Kurds, without imposing any nationality on the other," said the statement, addressed to a number of officials, including U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer, the Governing Council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League.
On Friday, the council voted to repeal a disputed law enacted in December allowing each religious group in Iraq to use religion as a basis for family law, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It would have meant that many women's rights in Iraq would be governed by Islamic law.
He said the repeal, although passed by a majority of the council, led to a walkout by eight Shiite members. The issue is not formally connected to the transitional law being discussed Saturday.
Suspected attackers killed in Mosul
U.S. soldiers in Mosul killed two people suspected of a drive-by shooting at an Iraqi police traffic control point, the U.S. military said Saturday.
Four assailants in a car and on a motorcycle carried out the ambush in the northern Iraq city, U.S. Central Command said.
The U.S. patrol engaged the car and killed two people. Iraqi police stopped the motorcycle and detained two suspects, now in jail.
In another operation in Mosul, soldiers discovered an improvised explosive device with "plastic explosive, ball bearings and blasting caps." Three people were arrested.
Informant collects reward
The person credited with steering U.S. troops to the location of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, has collected the bulk of a $30 million reward, State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said Friday.
The recipient, whose identity has not been made public, has control over the payment of the balance, meaning he or she can decide when and how to get the rest. The State Department said both the informant and the informant's family have left Iraq, with U.S. help.
Uday and Qusay Hussein, among the most feared figures in their father's regime, died July 22 after a firefight with U.S. commandos in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The two sons, hiding together in a villa, had been on the run since Saddam's dictatorship disintegrated in April.
