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Sunnis fear constitution allows iran to dominate { August 26 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/middleeast/26cnd-baghdad.html?hphttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/middleeast/26cnd-baghdad.html?hp
August 26, 2005
Sunnis Protest Charter as Leaders Struggle to Finalize It
By ROBERT F. WORTH
BAGHDAD, Iraq, August 26 - Thousands of Sunni Arabs rallied in central and northern Iraq today to protest the proposed Iraqi constitution.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, more than 2,000 Sunnis marched in the streets after Friday prayers, chanting, "No to federalism," "Iraq is the home of all," and "Baathists are loyal Iraqis." In Baquba, a largely Sunni city northeast of Baghdad, several thousand people marched, some of them carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab.
Sunni political leaders have refused to agree to the proposed document in large part because of a Shiite proposal to create a vast autonomous region in Iraq's oil-rich south. The Sunnis say that proposal - which would parallel the federal zone governed by the Kurds in northern Iraq - could cripple the Iraqi state, and allow neighboring Iran to dominate the Shiite south.
"Kirkuk's Arabs refuse any constitution that would divide the country by different names, which is at odds with Islam and the Arabic nation of Iraq," the leader of Kirkuk's Arab Assembly, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Mished, said. With its volatile ethnic mix of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Turkmen, Kirkuk has been particularly vulnerable to fears of sectarian division.
Many Sunnis are also concerned about constitutional proposals to ban any symbols or remnants of the Baath Party, dominated by Sunnis, which they see as effort to exclude them from public life.
Separately, thousands of followers of the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad and two southern cities, denouncing the American presence and lashing out at rival Shiite groups.
On Wednesday, members of Mr. Sadr's militia engaged in street battles with rival Shiites belonging to Dawa, the party of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. On Thursday, Mr. Sadr appealed for calm, as did Mr. Jaafari.
But the tensions between Mr. Sadr's followers and their Shiite rivals were palpable today, as Sheikh Abdul Zahra al Suaidi delivered a sermon before several thousand people under a baking sun in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in northeast Baghdad.
"We have stayed silent for a long time and extended hands of reconciliation and brotherhood, favoring the welfare of the nation and religion," Mr. Suaidi said. "But they went too far when they dared to attack the Sadr office."
On a day of relative calm in the rest of the country, insurgents continued their campaign of violence in the capital. Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi Army patrol in Doura, in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier, an Interior Ministry official said. Nearby, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol close to the Doura oil refinery, killing one officer and wounding two, the official said.
Fakher Haidar contributed reporting from Basra for this article, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kirkuk and Najaf.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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