Constitution Committee Signs Draft Charter

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Members of Iraq's constitution drafting committee signed the draft charter Sunday after making some minor amendments, a Shiite on the committee said, and a ceremony was scheduled to mark the completion of the draft.

The draft now goes to the Iraqi people in an Oct. 15 referendum. Five million copies will be circulated nationwide in food allotments each Iraqi family receives monthly from the government.

The amendments were made in hopes of appeasing the Sunni Arab minority, including removing the word "party" from the phrase about Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and allowing the parliament to be elected in December to decide the fate of a committee set up to purge for members.

But it was unclear if that was enough to appease the Sunni Arabs and whether the 15 Sunni negotiators signed the final document. Committee members appeared in the meeting hall for a group photo but made no statements.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[maddezmom]

1. update link: Sunnis did not sign

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Members of Iraq's constitution drafting committee signed the draft charter Sunday after making some minor amendments, but two Sunni Arab negotiators said the Sunni team rejected the final charter.

Mohammed Abed-Rabbou, one of the four principle negotiators on the 15-member Sunni team, said the Sunni officials refused to accept the draft "because the points of disagreement were not amended" to their satisfaction.

Those included proposals to transform Iraq into a federated country and references to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

Another Sunni negotiator, Fakhr al-Qaisi, said the draft was rejected because of wording about "Iraq's unity, Iraq's Arab identity."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq