Sunni Faction Halts Work on Iraqi Charter

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Kurdish Bloc Asserts Claim to More Territory

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD, July 20 -- A Sunni Arab faction suspended participation Wednesday in the crafting of Iraq's constitution, and a Kurdish bloc asserted claim to hundreds of square miles of additional territory stretching south of Baghdad. The two moves presented fresh challenges to efforts to draft a document that proponents hope will help bring order to the chaotic country.

The Sunni faction launched its boycott to protest security conditions after gunmen on Tuesday killed one of 15 Sunni members of the constitution-writing committee. Initial reports that two members died in the attack turned out to be wrong.

U.S. diplomats were seen entering a meeting late Wednesday with the Sunnis who suspended participation in the committee. There was no immediate word on the outcome of the meeting, which appeared to reflect what the chairman of the constitution committee called the Americans' "big role" in keeping the Sunni minority involved in the process. Sunnis form the backbone of the insurgency; the interim government views their engagement in the constitution process as key to stabilizing the country.

The committee chairman, Humam Hammoudi, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the body remains on target to finish a draft of the constitution by an Aug. 15 deadline. But he and other committee members made clear that there was no agreement on some major issues, including the decentralized federal structure that some have urged. Some Sunnis fear such a structure could split the country into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni enclaves.

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